GIFT   OF 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 


AN  INTERPRETATION  IN 

BIOGRAPHY 


BY 
DENTON  J.    SNIDER 


ST.  LOUIS,  MO. 

SIGMA  PUBLISHING   CO., 

210  PINE  STREET 

(For  sale  by  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago,  Ills.) 


COPYRIGHT  BY  D.  J.  SNIDER,  1908. 


NIXON- JONES  PRINTING  Co., 
215  PINE  ST.,  ST.  Louis 


BECKTOLD  &  Co.,  BINDERS, 
210  PINE  ST.,  ST.  Louis 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION  PAGE 

MEANING  OF  LINCOLN'S  LIFE     ...      5-12 

PART  FIRST 
LINCOLN'S  APPRENTICESHIP    ....     13-257 

CHAPTER  FIRST. 
LINCOLN'S  YOUTH 20-  91 

CHAPTER  SECOND. 

DRIFTING ••'....     92-200 

CHAPTER  THIRD. 

GETTING  ANCHORED 201-257 

(iii) 


03179 


Iv  CONTENTS. 

PART  SECOND.  PAGE 

LINCOLN'S  NATIONAL  CALL    ....  258-515 

CHAPTER  FIRST. 
FROM  STATE  TO  NATION     ....  269-305 

CHAPTER  SECOND. 

LINCOLN'S  SUBSIDENCE 306-356 

CHAPTER  THIRD. 
THE  NATIONAL  CHOICE 357-515 

PART  THIRD. 
LINCOLN,  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.  516-575 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


INTRODUCTION. 

President-elect  Lincoln,  while  on  his  journey  to 
the  Capital  for  the  purpose  of  being  installed  in  the 
highest  office  of  the  Nation,  felt  prompted  by  the 
locality  to  make  certain  biographic  remarks  in  an 
address  before  the  Senate  of  New  Jersey,  at  Tren 
ton,  a  few  days  preceding  his  inauguration.  These 
remarks  show  the  formative  power  of  biography 
over  a  human  career,  notably  over  that  of  Lincoln, 
and  hint  suggestively,  even  if  unconsciously,  the 
lines  upon  which  his  life  is  to  be  constructed  by 
the  biographer.  Preluding  what  is  to  follow  by 
these  words  of  Lincoln,  we  shall  emphasize  his 
salient  thoughts.  Let  us  then,  first  of  all,  hear 
him  speak. 

(5) 


6  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

"May  I  be  pardoned,  if,  upon  this  occasion,  I 
mention  that  away  back  in  my  childhood,  the 
earliest  days  of  my  being  able  to  read,  I  got  hold 
of  a  small  book,  such  a  one  as  few  of  the  younger 
members  have  ever  seen — Weems'  Life  of  Wash 
ington.  I  remember  all  the  accounts  there  given 
of  the  battle-fields  and  struggles  for  the  liberties 
of  the  country,  and  none  fixed  themselves  upon  my 
imagination  so  deeply  as  the  struggle  here  at  Tren 
ton,  New  Jersey.  .  .  .  You  all  know,  for  you  have 
been  boys,  how  these  early  impressions  last  longer 
than  any  others.  I  recollect  thinking  then,  boy 
even  though  I  was,  that  there  must  have  been 
something  more  than  common  that  these  men  strug 
gled  for.  I  am  exceedingly  anxious  that  that 
thing,  that  something  even  more  than  national  in 
dependence,  that  something  that  held  out  a  great 
promise  to  all  the  people  of  the  world  to  all  time  to 
come — I  am  exceedingly  anxious  that  this  Union, 
the  Constitution  and  the  liberties  of  the  people 
shall  be  perpetuated  in  accordance  with  the  origi 
nal  idea  for  which  that  struggle  was  made,  and  I 
shall  be  most  happy  indeed  if  I  shall  be  an  hum 
ble  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty,  and  of 
this,  his  almost  chosen  People,  for  perpetuating  the 
object  of  that  great  struggle." 

Thus  Lincoln  in  sight  of  his  mighty  task,  gives 
expression  to  the  thoughts  which  well  out  of  his 
heart  in  presence  of  the  historic  associations  clus 
tering  around  the  New  Jersey  Capital.  The  chief 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

interest  is  that  the  speaker  calls  up  Washington 
moving  from  the  hour  of  his  sorest  trial  forward  to  one 
of  his  greatest  triumphs,  and  instinctively  couples 
that  time  with  the  present.  An  epoch  is  dawning 
equal  in  magnitude  to  that  of  the  Revolution,  if 
not  more  colossal;  very  naturally  Lincoln  conjoins 
himself  with  Washington,  and  becomes  aware  of 
himself  as  the  pilot  to  a  new  era,  though  with 
deep  foreboding,  as  he  looks  out  from  Trenton  upon 
the  coming  crisis. 

Nor  should  we  omit  to  note  those  fleeting  pro 
phetic  intimations,  those  fitful  flashes  of  foresight 
and  insight  into  the  Supreme  Order,  of  which  Lin 
coln  in  his  high  moments  was  capable,  and  which 
break  forth  through  detached  phrases  from  the 
hidden  depths  of  his  agitated  soul.  He  is  conscious 
that  something  is  at  stake  "even  more  than  na 
tional  independence ",  which  was  the  purpose  of 
the  old  Revolution.  He  glimpses  the  far-extending, 
globe-encircling  significance  of  the  contest,  involv 
ing  in  its  result  "a  great  promise  to  all  the  people 
of  the  world  to  all  time  to  come":  surely  a  vast 
outlook,  world-historical  in  the  widest  sense.  And 
the  biographer  must  try  to  stretch  his  own  soul 
to  the  vision  of  that  promise  seen  by  Lincoln,  and 
to  give  to  it  some  kind  of  utterance.  Moreover 
Lincoln's  great  happiness  is  in  feeling  himself  to  be 
"  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty  "  as 
well  as  an  instrument  in  the  hands  "  of  this  His 
almost  chosen  People  ",  to  bring  about  the  grand 


8  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

coming  consummation  of  the  ages.  It  may  be  per 
mitted  to  draw  forth  into  clearer  outline  from  the 
shadowy  twilight  in  which  they  float,  these  pro 
phetic  premonitions  of  Lincoln.  We  behold  him 
forecasting  his  highest  function,  and  placing  him 
self  between  the  People  (or  Folk-Soul)  on  this  side, 
and  on  that  side  the  Almighty  revealing  Himself 
as  the  World-Spirit  in  the  historic  occurrences  of 
Time.  Thus  he  is  truly  an  instrument  of  both 
these  Powers,  the  one  here  below  and  the  other 
there  above;  a  mediator  we  may  name  him  between 
the  Folk-Soul  and  the  World-Spirit,  both  of  which 
he,  Abraham  Lincoln,  is  born  to  harmonize,  after 
they  have  produced  just  about  the  loudest  and  shrill 
est  dissonance  of  the  century,  if  not  of  all  history. 
So  he  speaks,  not  with  the  strictness  of  a  logical 
formula  but  with  the  glimmering  outline  of  a  far- 
off  forecast,  discoursing  first  of  that  Power  more 
than  national,  in  supereminent  sway  over  all  the 
people  of  the  world  to  all  time  to  come,  then  of 
himself  as  instrument  of  it,  who  is  to  bring  it  down 
and  realize  it  in  this  his  almost  chosen  People,  also 
an  elemental  Power  in  the  enduring  world-histor 
ical  act.  Now  it  is  these  two  Powers  which  will 
move  through  the  life  of  Lincoln,  and  will  be  by 
him  interwoven,  and  indeed  unified,  making  him 
truly  the  Great  Man  of  his  nation  and  epoch.  To 
each  of  them  we  give  its  own  name,  that  they  be 
distinctly  marked  off  and  specially  designated.  In 
the  People,  from  whom  Lincoln  springs,  to  whom 


INTRODUCTION  9 

he  appeals,  and  for  whom  he  acts,  is  working  a 
character,  an  instinct,  a  Soul — we  shall  often  call 
it  the  Folk-Soul.  The  almighty,  providential 
Power,  whom  Lincoln  often  invokes  under  one 
name  or  other,  who  has  his  hand  on  human  events, 
and  directs  them  to  his  end,  we  shall  name  the 
world-historical  Spirit,  or  simply  the  World-Spirit. 
This  last  is  " something  more  than  common", 
"more  than  national",  yet  employing  the  particu 
lar  nation  at  a  given  time  as  its  upbearer  and 
realizer  for  fulfilling  a  given  stage  of  the  supreme 
end  of  the  World's  History.  Moreover  between 
these  two  Powers  there  is  a  certain  immediate  re 
lation,  as  when  we  hear  it  said  that  in  a  great 
crisis  Public  Opinion  (the  Folk-Soul)  bears  directly 
the  impress  of  the  Genius  of  the  Age  (the  World- 
Spirit)  .  In  such  a  case,  however,  the  Folk  needs 
a  leader  in  word  and  action,  voicing  its  dumb  as 
piration  and  bringing  it  to  realize  in  deeds  the 
decree  of  the  supernal  Power  whose  potency  it 
feels  and  whose  end  it  carries  out.  Such  a  leader 
for  our  Nation  in  its  pivotal  crisis  was  Lincoln, 
mediating,  as  we  designate  the  relation,  this  par 
ticular  American  Folk-Soul  of  ours,  with  the  uni 
versal  World-Spirit,  the  Prime  Mover  in  and  over 
all  History. 

Another  fact  should  be  taken  out  of  the  forego 
ing  bit  of  a  speech  and  dwelt  upon  with  due  atten 
tion:  Lincoln  had  read  during  his  early  youth  in 
the  frontier  cabin  of  his  parents  the  life  of  George 


10  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Washington  by  M.  L.  Weems,  who,  we  learn  from 
the  title-page,  was  "  formerly  rector  of  Mount 
Vernon  parish  ",  where  was  located  the  well-known 
residence  of  the  Father  of  his  Country.  That  book 
had  gone  deep  into  Lincoln's  soul  and  had  stayed 
with  him  through  life,  not  only  furnishing  an  ideal 
of  manhood  and  moulding  his  character,  but  also 
showing  him  the  way  to  reach  the  popular  heart. 
For  Weems  was  a  story-teller,  an  anecdotist,  yea 
a  myth-maker,  or  at  least  a  myth-gatherer,  weav 
ing  around  the  name  of  Washington  many  a  won 
derful  legend.  Such  for  instance,  was  the  marvel 
ous  dream  of  Washington's  mother  (with  interpre 
tation  by  Weems),  and  the  hero's  providential 
escapes  from  his  foes,  the  Indians  and  the  British, 
the  whole  being  garnished  with  apt  allusions  to 
Scripture  and  even  to  Homer.  In  the  same  book  is 
found  the  most  popular  of  all  American  folk-tales, 
the  story  of  the  Little  Hatchet  with  its  moral  cli 
max:  "Father,  I  can't  tell  a  lie".  This  story, 
Weems  says,  was  taken  down  from  the  lips  of  "an 
excellent  lady ",  of  old  the  depository  and  trans 
mitter  of  folk-lore.  Deeply  educative  was  the 
book  for  the  almost  schoolless  boy  reading  in  the 
night  by  the  fire  of  a  back-log;  even  then  he  was 
getting  ready  for  his  task,  and  he  now  recognizes 
the  fact,  as  he  looks  rearward  into  his  past,  una 
voidably  connecting  himself  with  Washington, 
wherein  most  of  his  countrymen  have  since  fol 
lowed  him.  It  is  true  that  there  is  a  striking  dif- 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

ference  between  the  high-toned,  well-educated, 
dignified  Virginia  gentleman  and  the  awkward, 
self-made  backwoodsman  of  the  North- West.  The 
one  represented  the  Right  of  Revolution  and  suc 
ceeded;  the  other  represented  the  Wrong  of  Revo 
lution  and  succeeded.  The  career  of  the  first  led 
primarily  to  separation  and  won  it;  the  career  of 
the  second  led  primarily  to  union  and  won  it.  Still 
both  sprang  from  the  same  Virginia,  though  at  dif 
ferent  removes ;  the  one  may  be  called  the  son  and 
the  other  the  grandson  of  the  Old  Commonwealth. 
The  triumphant  end  of  Washington's  war  was 
Yorktown.  the  triumphant  end  of  Lincoln's  war 
was  Appomattox,  both  places  being  in  the  same 
general  locality  of  the  same  State,  Virginia. 

Rector  Weems  thus  heroizes  Washington  for  his 
People  and  writes  a  unique  book,  though  running 
somewhat  in  the  Plutarchian  mythologic  vein  and 
breaking  out  into  dramatic  dialogue  upon  tempt 
ing  occasions.  Such  a  biography  is  at  present 
hardly  possible,  perchance  not  desirable,  though 
to  our  forefathers  it  had  unquestionably  its  mes 
sage.  Lincoln  drew  from  it  deep  joys  and  deeper 
training  of  the  spirit.  His  own  life  was  enwreathed, 
particularly  while  he  was  President,  in  masses  of 
fable  ever  sprouting  afresh  from  the  Folk-Soul,  he 
being  himself  the  People's  own  fabulist.  This  the 
biographer  cannot  neglect,  though  with  it  must  be 
given  the  profounder  significance  of  Lincoln's 
career,  truly  world-historical. 


12  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Another  utterance  may  be  cited,  concordant 
with  the  foregoing  statement,  showing  to  whom 
Lincoln's  thoughts  reverted  as  he  beheld  and 
brooded  over  the  coming  trials  of  his  country.  His 
fellow-citizens  of  Springfield  assembled  for  a  part 
ing  salutation  when  he  set  out  to  assume  his  Presi 
dential  duties,  with  the  cloud  of  Civil  War  already 
darkening  the  Southern  horizon.  He  bade  them 
farewell,  breathing  a  sigh  of  premonition  and  giv 
ing  a  glimpse  of  that  great  man  of  the  past  in 
whose  presence  he  seemed  to  live  during  those  try 
ing  days:  "I  now  leave,  not  knowing  when  or 
whether  ever  I  may  return,  with  a  task  before  me 
greater  than  that  which  rested  upon  Washington." 


Ipart  jffrst 


When  it  began  to  be  foreshadowed  about  1859- 
60  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  coming  man  of 
the  supreme  national  emergency,  a  great  desire 
was  felt  to  know  how  he  got  to  be.  Even  to  his 
friends  the  lines  of  his  early  life  ran  back  into  a  cloud 
which  he  seemed  unwilling  to  disperse.  Two 
little  bits  of  autobiography  were  wrung  from  him 
by  the  necessities  of  the  approaching  campaign. 
From  the  first  we  take  the  following  extract  which 
gives  a  glimpse  of  his  early  opportunities  for 

(13) 


14          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

education  in  the  backwoods  of  Indiana.  (Works 
of  Lincoln,  by  Nicolay  &  Hay,  I,  p.  596.) 

'There  were  some  schools  so-called,  but  no 
qualification  was  ever  required  of  a  teacher  beyond 
reading  writing  and  ciphering  to  the  rule  of  three. 
If  a  straggler  supposed  to  understand  Latin 
happened  to  sojourn  in  the  neighborhood,  he  was 
looked  upon  as  a  wizard.  There  was  absolutely 
nothing  to  excite  ambition  for  education."  Still 
we  shall  see  that  Lincoln  learned  from  these 
frontier  teachers  the  elements  and  the  educative 
instrumentalities  of  all  culture.  He  thus  had  the 
chance  of  making  further  progress  by  means  of 
the  printed  page,  though  "I  have  not  been  to 
school  since.  The  little  advance  I  now  have  upon 
this  store  of  education,  I  have  picked  up  from  time 
to  time  under  the  pressure  of  necessity."  Somewhat 
top  disparaging  is  the  tone  of  these  confessions,  as 
Lincoln  contrasted  himself  with  Seward  and  other 
college-bred  men  in  public  life.  But  he  had  oppor 
tunities  for  training  which  they  had  not,  and 
which  are  by  no  means  to  be  omitted  from  any 
complete  account  of  his  life's  discipline  for  his 
mighty  task. 

In  the  other  bit  of  autobiography  (Works, 
I,  p.  639),  written  in  the  third  person,  for  use  during 
the  campaign  of  1860,  he  returns  to  the  defects  of 
his  early  education:  "Abraham  now  thinks  that 
the  aggregate  of  all  his  schooling  did  not  amount 
to  one  year.  He  was  never  in  a  college  or  academy 


LINCOLN'S  APPRENTICESHIP.  15 

as  a  student,  and  never  inside  a  college  or  academy 
building  till  since  he  had  a  law  license.  What  he 
has  in  the  way  of  education,  he  has  picked  up. 
After  he  was  twenty-three  he  studied  English 
Grammar — imperfectly  of  course,  but  so  as  to 
speak  and  write  as  he  now  does.  He  studied  and 
nearly  mastered  the  six  books  of  Euclid  since  he 
was  a  member  of  Congress,"  that  is,  after  he  was 
forty  years  old.  Through  these  simple  modest 
paragraphs  peeps  out  the  unquenchable  aspiration 
of  the  man;  he  educates  himself  and  graduates 
from  a  school  of  which  he  is  the  only  man  of  his 
time  who  holds  or  can  hold  a  diploma.  Now  that 
school  with  its  curriculum  is  just  what  our  reader, 
we  hope,  wishes  to  hear  about  in  this  book  of  ours. 
Still  another  precious  autobiographic  morsel 
concerning  Lincoln  we  can  catch  up  from  the  first 
pages  of  his  Boswell,  Herndon.  Just  after  the 
Chicago  Convention  of  1860,  a  reporter  by  the 
name  of  Scripps,  called  upon  him  for  some  details 
of  his  life.  Lincoln  at  first  shrank  from  the  idea, 
exclaiming,  "Why,  Scripps,  it  is  a  great  piece  of 
folly  to  make  anything  out  of  me  or  my  early  life. 
It  can  all  be  condensed  into  a  single  sentence,  and 
that  sentence  you  will  find  in  Gray's  Elegy, 

The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor. 

That's  my  life,  and  that  is  all  that  you  or  anyone 
else  can  make  of  it." 
And  yet  the  life  of  Lincoln  before  1860  has 


16  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

become  that  part  of  him  which  the  People  love 
to  hang  over  and  ponder  upon  in  a  kind  of  in 
satiable  wonder.  More  than  any  other  recorded 
career  it  reveals  the  possibilities  of  the  American 
man  rising  from  the  humblest  to  the  highest 
position  in  the  land.  How  did  he  do  it?  The 
reader  clutches  and  caresses  every  little  fact  try 
ing  to  coax  out  of  it  some  brief  whisper  of  the 
lurking  secret.  Lincoln's  education  certainly 
flowed  not  in  the  ordinary  channels  made  by  the 
stream  of  transmitted  culture.  Still  he  had  an 
education  unique  of  its  kind  and  preparing  him 
supremely  for  his  world-historical  function.  Now 
this  education  of  Lincoln,  being  quite  different 
from  what  is  usually  included  under  that  term  and 
reaching  considerably  beyond  the  usual  school-age, 
we  shall  designate  specially  as  his  Apprenticeship, 
which  indeed  covers  the  first  thirty-three  years  of 
his  life,  from  his  birth  till  his  marriage.  And  this 
considerable  stretch  of  human  existence  has  like 
wise  its  lesser  turns  and  tides,  which  the  biog 
rapher  should  not  fail  to  trace  in  passing. 

Lincoln  the  apprentice,  therefore,  we  are  to 
follow  in  the  present  period,  tracking  him  as  far 
as  possible  along  the  main  lines  of  his  spirit's  early 
flowering.  We  are  to  behold  in  it  a  time  of  pre 
liminary  training  for  his  work;  we  can  hardly  leave 
out  of  view  whither  he  is  going,  and  under  what 
guidance.  Easy  enough  is  it  ordinarily  to  tell  to 
what  school,  college,  university  this  or  that  dis- 


LINCOLN'S  APPRENTICESHIP.  17 

tinguished  man  went,  what  he  studied  and  who 
were  his  teachers,  in  the  beaten  road  of  academic 
discipline.  But  all  this  becomes  just  the  difficult 
thing  to  speak  out  and  even  to  find  in  the  case  of 
Lincoln,  who  has  and  even  makes  his  own  curric 
ulum  while  he  goes  along.  He  creates  his  college 
course  as  he  lives,  and  the  biographer  must  create 
it  after  him  from  the  little  and  few  fragments  which 
have  been  fished  out  of  his  youth's  fountain  of 
oblivion.  His  chief  instruction  does  not  take  place 
in  a  building  devoted  to  education;  Lincoln's 
school-house  is  the  world,  more  particularly  his 
institutional  environment,  which  he  is  to  absorb 
more  completely  and  to  become  acquainted  with 
more  intimately  than  any  other  man  of  his  time. 
The  People  was  his  instructor,  and  he  learned  the 
lesson  so  well  that  he  in  the  end  became  the  in 
structor  of  the  People. 

We  may  say,  then,  that  during  the  first  period  of 
his  life  Lincoln  was  the  apprentice  of  the  Folk- 
Soul,  especially  as  the  latter  manifested  itself  in 
the  Northwestern  portion  of  the  United  States. 
Primarily  he  is  of  it,  one  with  it,  pulsing  respon- 
sively  to  all  its  throbs;  an  embryo  we  may  regard 
him,  not  yet  consciously  born  of  his  institutional 
mother,  even  if  lustily  struggling  for  birth  and  the 
light  of  Heaven.  During  all  these  years,  a  full 
generation  indeed,  young  Lincoln  is  but  a  germinal 
unit,  an  atom  of  the  vast  protoplasmic  mass  called 
the  Multitude,  from  which,  through  the  discipline 


18  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

of  life,  he  is  to  differentiate  himself  and  rise  up  to 
true  individuality.  This  concentrates  into  one 
burning  point  the  People,  who  thus  in  their  Great 
Man  can  see  themselves  by  their  own  light.  Through 
such  individuals  a  Nation,  if  it  can  produce  them, 
need  never  die,  being  able  to  re-constitute  and  to 
re-make  itself  in  the  pinch  of  destiny. 

The  apprentice  Lincoln — so  we  may  name  him 
for  the  nonce — we  are  now  to  see  in  the  workshop 
or  school  of  the  Folk-Soul,  learning  its  ways,  how 
it  looks  at  things,  and  particularly  how  it  deals 
with  its  own  institutions.  He  has  to  get  widely 
and  well  acquainted  with  his  own  around  him — 
the  hardest  branch  in  the  curriculum  of  life.  More 
over  he  has  not  merely  to  commune  deeply  with 
the  Folk-Soul,  but  he  must  learn  to  talk  to  it  in  its 
own  dialect.  Thus  it  understands  him  when  he 
speaks  to  it,  and  it  responds  to  him,  often  with  a 
tremendous  acclaim.  On  the  other  hand  he  under 
stands  it,  probably  better  than  any  other  American 
has  ever  succeeded  in  doing.  Still  all  this  he  has  to 
learn,  and  this  is  the  theme  of  his  Apprenticeship. 
Anecdote,  fable,  law,  politics,  even  love  are  some 
of  the  elements  surging  through  the  long  discipline, 
often  chaotic  in  outer  appearance,  but  inwardly 
attuned  to  one  harmonious  end,  if  our  ear  can  be 
brought  to  catch  the  music. 

Here,  however,  we  shall  just  hint  what  the 
future  is  fully  to  reveal.  This  Apprenticeship  is  not 
the  finality  of  the  man,  but  is  only  the  means, 


LINCOLN'S  APPRENTICESHIP.  19 

the  road  leading  him  forward  to  his  supreme  voca 
tion.  As  he  himself  declared,  he  is  "the  instru 
ment"  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty  and  of  the 
People  to  fulfil  the  grand  behest  of  the  Ages.  Still 
he  has  to  have  preparation  and  a  good  deal  of  it. 
This  Apprenticeship  is,  accordingly,  but  a  part  or 
stage  of  the  total  Lincoln.  Nevertheless  it  has 
its  own  process  and  its  own  law  governing  its  some 
what  diversified  and  scattered  occurrences.  These 
are  what  we  shall  have  to  study,  seeking  to  put 
them  into  some  kind  of  inner  relation  and  order, 
which  brings  to  light  their  psychical  movement,  and 
thus  reveals  the  soul  itself  in  its  unfolding.  This 
Apprenticeship,  we  may  say  in  advance,  will  show 
Lincoln  in  three  stages  or  chapters  of  his  spirit's 
evolution  towards  its  supreme  end:  first,  his 
youth  with  its  schooling  at  home  under  the  paternal 
roof,  then  his  going  forth  and  experiencing  the 
world  in  a  time  of  drifting,  finally  his  getting 
established  in  State,  Community  and  Family,  or 
his  becoming  institutionalized.  With  this  last 
phase  his  Apprenticeship  is  rounded  out  to  fullness, 
and  the  Apprentice  passes  on  to  the  next  great 
sweep  of  his  life's  occurrences  driving  forward 
towards  his  goal. 


CHAPTER   FIRST. 

Xtncoin's  H>outb. 

The  boundary  of  Lincoln's  youthful  period  we 
may  draw  through  the  year  when  he  becomes  of 
age,  and  quits  parental  guidance  for  the  direct  ex 
perience  of  the  world.  He  reaches  a  new  individ 
uality,  being  now  his  own  master;  a  kind  of  second 
birth  it  is,  bringing  him  into  another,  yet  inde 
pendent  life.  From  babyhood  to  manhood  we 
conceive  Lincoln's  youth  to  range,  dropping  upon 
his  path  many  an  important  lesson  which  he  will 
never  forget.  In  his  tenth  year  the  tenderest  tie 
of  his  young  existence  was  snapped  in  twain  by 
the  death  of  his  mother,  which  stamped  or  helped 
to  stamp  upon  his  soft  heart  and  even  upon  his 
face  lines  of  an  undying  sorrow. 

Accordingly  Lincoln,  till  he  was  twenty-one  years 
old,  remained  at  home,  and  received  the  domestic 
training  of  his  father's  family.  It  was  a  shifting 
unsettled  household,  yet  had  an  inner  life  over 
which  the  two  women,  the  mother  and  the  step 
mother,  successively  presided,  giving  to  it  in  the 
humblest  surroundings  a  real  nobility  of  character 
and  depth  of  feeling.  This  training  of  the  home 
through  his  two  mothers  developed  and  purified 
Lincoln's  emotional  life,  so  that  his  native  human 
sympathy  was  always  one  of  his  mightiest  powers. 
To  be  sure  he  was  originally  gifted  with  a  great  re- 
(20) 


CHAPTER  FIRST— LINCOLN'S  YOUTH.        21 

sponsive  heart,  which  nevertheless  might  have 
been  dwarfed  or  perverted  had  it  not  been  un 
folded  and  ennobled  by  the  maternal  instinct 
moulding  the  child-soul  in  the  home. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  February  12th,  1809, 
three  miles  from  the  little  town  of  Hodgensville, 
in  a  locality  which  was  then  included  in  Hardin 
County,  Kentucky,  but  which  now  belongs  to  La 
Rue  County.  His  parents  were  named  Thomas 
and  Nancy  Lincoln,  whose  social  position  was  that 
of  the  poor  class  of  Southerners.  The  son  de 
clared  in  a  brief  sketch  of  himself  (in  1859)  that 
"my  parents  were  both  born  in  Virginia,  of  un 
distinguished  families — second  families  perhaps  I 
should  say."  Wherein  we  feel  the  unspoken  con 
trast  with  the  first  families  of  Virginia,  so  famous, 
to  which  his  people  did  not  belong. 

We  have  already  seen  how  Lincoln  shrank  from 
his  own  biography  in  his  response  to  reporter 
Scripps  just  after  his  nomination  for  the  Presi 
dency.  Of  course  he  could  not  and  did  not  appre 
ciate  the  import  of  his  own  life  up  to  1860,  when  he 
made  the  before  cited  statements  about  himself. 
And  he  was  then  seemingly  correct  in  his  judgment. 
The  succeeding  five  years  are  to  bring  out  the  man 
and  to  set  him  down  in  the  very  focus  of  the  World's 
History,  which  will  throw  a  search-light  into  every 
little  nook  of  his  previous  humble  existence.  Those 
last  years  of  his  were  the  realization  of  what  lay 
in  him,  and  revealed  him  equal  to  the  mightiest 


22  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—PART  FIRST. 

crisis  of  the  age.  So  mankind  must  find  out  how 
he  came  to  be  what  he  was,  and  will  persist  in  pry 
ing  into  every  dark  corner  of  his  earlier  days  to  see 
if  it  can  not  discover  the  clew  of  his  genesis.  That 
inquisitive  reporter  of  1860  was  but  the  brief  pre 
lude  of  a  long  line  of  biographers  running  down 
into  the  present  and  shooting  out  many  a  bud  for 
the  future. 

A  word  may  be  inserted  here  upon  the  scope  of 
the  present  work,  which  does  not  attempt  to  add 
new  details  of  Lincoln's  life,  but  to  order  and  inter 
pret  old  facts,  those  already  well-known  and  col 
lected  by  numerous  investigators.  Nor  is  there 
intended  a  critique  of  the  extensive  Lincoln 
literature,  though  such  a  work  would  be  timely,  if 
done  by  the  right  hand  in  the  right  way.  Within 
all  the  outer  occurrences  of  his  life  we  seek  to  see 
and  to  utter  the  spiritual  or  psychical  evolution  of 
Lincoln  unfolding  in  and  through  the  institutions 
of  his  land,  which  he  not  only  maintained  but  also 
transformed,  thereby  putting  them  in  line  with 
the  movement  of  the  World's  History. 

It  is  well  known  that  Lincoln  often  reflected 
upon,  yea,  brooded  over  the  mystery  of  his  origin 
and  destiny.  He  seemed  unable  to  account  for 
himself  from  his  parentage,  and  refused  to  give 
any  detailed  report  of  his  early  life.  Still  the  chief 
facts  of  it  have  been  hunted  up  and  garnered  in 
print  by  diligent  inquirers.  Along  the  track  of 
his  youthful  days  he  left  a  luminous  record  in  the 


ANCESTRAL.  23 

memories  of  living  men  with  whom  he  was  asso 
ciated,  and  who  have  been  sought  out  in  their 
obscure  haunts  like  hidden  treasures,  that  they 
might  yield  a  few  nuggets  of  golden  information 
concerning  Abraham  Lincoln.  Likewise  his  re 
mote  kindred  have  been  exhumed,  if  not  from 
their  graves,  at  least  from  old  buried  records,  in 
order  that  the  line  of  his  descent  may  be  traced, 
perchance  to  discover  the  secret  of  his  genius.  For 
the  deep  necessity  of  the  time  is  to  see  the  great 
man  and  the  great  event  evolving  out  of  their 
germ,  this  present  century  of  ours  being  truly  the 
century  of  Evolution. 

So  it  belongs  in  the  present  biographic  theme 
to  follow  carefully  the  youthful  steps  of  Lincoln  in 
his  first  period  of  Apprenticeship  to  the  Folk- 
Soul,  and  to  keep  meantime  in  view  the  task  for 
which  he  is  under  training,  possibly  with  an  occa 
sional  glimpse  of  the  Power  which  has  set  him  such 
a  task  and  is  constraining  him  to  such  an  Appren 
ticeship. 

I. 

Ancestral. 

It  is  stated  that  the  American  ancestral  chain 
of  Lincoln  starts  about  1638  with  the  coming  of 
Samuel  Lincoln  to  Hingham,  Massachusetts,  from 
Norwich,  England,  some  eighteen  years  after  the 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  At  this  date  the  mother- 
country  was  getting  into  deeper  and  deeper  trouble 


24  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

with  her  king,  and  many  of  her  sons,  foreseeing 
the  civil  conflict,  were  looking  towards  America  as 
a  refuge  from  oppression  and  as  a  bulwark  for  the 
maintenance  of  their  political  and  religious  liberty. 
What  directly  caused  the  emigration  of  Samuel 
Lincoln  is  not  known;  but  we  may  feel  a  throb  of 
the  movement  of  the  time  in  the  prohibition  of 
1637,  in  which  the  Puritans  were  forbidden  by  the 
government  to  leave  England,  so  great  was  their 
flight  to  the  New  World.  Still  they  continued  to 
escape  to  the  promised  land  in  the  West  regardless 
of  the  prohibition. 

If  the  first  American  progenitor  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  a  fugitive  from  his  native  country  for 
the  sake  of  greater  liberty  (a  matter  probable  but 
not  verified),  we  find  a  later  ancestor  separating 
from  his  New  England  home  and  settling  in  Penn 
sylvania,  Berks  County,  probably  for  a  similar 
reason.  We  read  that  these  early  Lincolns  were 
Quakers,  and  there  seems  to  have  been  a  second 
hegira  to  the  paradise  of  William  Penn  and  Quaker- 
dom.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Puritans  did  not 
tolerate  any  heresy  (except  their  own),  and  that 
they  persecuted  the  heretical  Quakers,  who,  as  men 
of  peace,  naturally  took  to  flight.  Still  a  branch 
of  the  Lincoln  family  remained  in  Massachusetts, 
and  one  of  its  eminent  members  met  there  our 
historic  Abraham  Lincoln  in  1848,  over  two 
hundred  years  after  the  landing  of  their  supposedly 
common  ancestor. 


ANCESTRAL.  25 

The  next  step  in  this  ancestral  march  of  descent 
and  of  migration  was  taken  from  Pennsylvania  to 
Virginia,  to  which  State  a  John  Lincoln  moved 
about  1750  and  settled  in  Rockingham  County. 
Here  the  Revolutionary  War  overtook  the  family; 
one  of  the  sons  of  John  Lincoln,  Isaac  by  name, 
enlisted,  and  was  a  lieutenant  in  a  Virginia  regi 
ment  at  the  surrender  of  Yorktown.  Four  other 
sons  are  known  by  name,  but  they  seem  to  have 
held  themselves  aloof  from  the  great  issue  of  the 
age,  probably  in  accord  with  their  Quaker  faith. 
Moreover,  their  look  was  turned  westward,  they 
were  by  nature  pioneers,  and  had  to  take  another 
flight  from  civilization  to  the  woods.  The  quiet 
idyllic  life  of  the  solitary  Quaker  settlement  on  the 
remote  border  of  their  advancing  race  seems  to 
have  been  their  ideal.  At  any  rate  the  family  in 
its  manifold  offshoots  throughout  the  Southern 
and  Western  States,  never  furnished  any  public 
men  of  note,  with  the  one  colossal  exception, 
though  the  Massachusetts  branch  produced  a 
number  of  distinguished  citizens. 

Still  this  dip  of  the  family  into  Virginia's  in 
stitutional  life  was  an  important  event  of  its  history. 
The  migratory  stream  at  that  time  was  turning 
southward,  as  it  later  bent  back  northward  when 
the  slavery  question  began  to  make  itself  felt.  In 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Virginia  was 
altogether  the  largest,  richest,  and  most  influential 
of  the  American  Commonwealths.  Its  population 


26  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

then  was  nearly  as  great  as  that  of  New  York  and 
Massachusetts  combined;  the  chief  seaport  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  was  Norfolk,  though  Charleston 
might  dispute  the  claim.  Boston  and  New  York 
lagged  to  the  rear.  Also  in  Virginia  at  that  time 
were  the  statesmen  of  the  rising  nation,  the 
moulders  of  its  institutions.  How  that  Common 
wealth  ever  brought  forth  so  many  and  such 
excellent  public-men  is  still  a  problem  which  no 
historian  of  Virginia  has  yet  solved  or  even  fully 
presented.  And  this  suggests  her  limitation;  she 
seems  unable  to  write  the  history  she  herself  has 
made;  her  practical  gift  has  far  surpassed  her 
reflective.  Very  different  is  New  England,  which 
has  the  moral,  self-examining,  critical  spirit  rather 
than  the  institutional,  and  has  produced  a  wonder 
ful  stream  of  preachers,  writers  and  talkers — an 
output  by  no  means  to  be  neglected,  even  if  its 
character  be  somewhat  provincial. 

Here  it  must  not  fail  to  be  noted  that  Virginia 
then  was  the  main  center  from  which  rayed  out 
the  new  States  of  the  Union.  She  had  or  claimed 
the  vast  territory  lying  to  the  North-west,  to  the 
West  directly,  and  in  part  to  the  South-west,  till 
the  Mississippi.  Thus  she  was  in  area  by  far  the 
largest  of  the  Old  Thirteen.  Truly  she  possessed 
not  only  the  domain  but  the  ability  to  be  the  State- 
builder  for  the  future.  This  was  in  fact  just  her 
supreme  function,  deeply  in  accord  with  her 
institutional  character.  Really  she  was  the  only 


ANCESTRAL.  27 

one  of  the  old  Commonwealths  that  had  such  a 
transcendent  gift  in  good  working  order,  as  is 
shown  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  was  substantially  her  product.  Still  the 
other  Commonwealths  participated  in  her  excel 
lence,  and  recognized  her  position.  So  ifr  comes 
that  the  stream  of  migration  already  mentioned 
flowed  from  the  north  into  Virginia  and  then  passed 
on  to  the  young  States  after  a  baptism,  short  or  long, 
in  her  spirit.  Thus  she  radiated  new  States  to 
wards  all  points  of  the  Western  land  of  promise. 

Of  this  great  movement  of  the  people,  the  Lincoln 
family  was  but  one  example,  one  small  trunk  of 
pioneers,  though  very  fruitful,  shooting  branches 
into  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  in  general  all  around  the  horizon  of  the 
West.  The  curious  fact  has  been  brought  to  light 
that  another  Quaker  family,  the  Boones,  intertwine 
with  the  Lincolns  in  their  migrations,  the  members 
of  each  branch  frequently  intermarrying  on  the 
way.  Both  started  from  Pennsylvania,  Berks 
County,  and  spread  southward  and  westward,  till 
Daniel  Boone,  the  most  famous  of  all  pioneers,  and 
deemed  the  typical  one,  left  a  long  trail  of  adven 
tures  reaching  from  Virginia,  through  Tennessee 
and  Kentucky,  into  Missouri,  where  he  died.  Him 
the  old  Greek  would  have  heroized  into  a  Hercules. 
Taking  up  again  our  thread  of  the  migratory 
Lincolns,  we  note  that  the  next  act  is  the  passing 
of  one  of  them  from  Virginia  (Rockingham  County) 


28          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

into  Kentucky  (Jefferson  County).  The  name  of 
this  Lincoln  was  Abraham,  a  name  common  in  the 
family  with  other  Hebrew  names  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments — by  the  light  of  which  fact  we 
may  cast  a  glimpse  into  the  chief  and  perhaps  only 
book  which  the  household  possessed  or  read.  This 
Abraham  Lincoln  arrived  at  his  new  home  about 
1780,  turning  away  from  the  British  invasion  of 
his  State  and  following  the  stream  of  emigrants 
which  poured  over  the  Alleghenies,  or  floated  down 
the  Ohio  River  in  great  family  boats  towards  the 
new  West.  Already  in  1780  Louisville  is  said  to 
have  had  several  hundred  people,  and  in  1784 
Kentucky's  population  was  estimated  at  30,000. 
Ohio  was  not  yet  much  sought,  its  time  came  later, 
after  that  of  Kentucky. 

This  Abraham  Lincoln  was  our  Abraham's 
paternal  grandfather,  who  owned  an  extensive 
estate,  and  seemingly  brought  with  him  from 
Virginia  the  ambition  to  be  of  the  landed  gentry. 
His  life  came  to  an  untimely  close  by  an  Indian's 
bullet.  His  three  sons  were  saved,  only  one  of 
whom  can  we  take  up  hereafter  into  this  ancestral 
line,  which  has  been  throwing  off  Lincolns  into 
obscurity  for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half. 

Let  the  reader,  however,  note  with  due  emphasis 
that  migratory  dip  of  people  from  the  North  into 
Virginia,  ere  they  pass  on  in  their  movement  to 
the  West.  About  this  time  Virginia  was  at  her 
greatest,  being  the  representative  of  an  idea  which 


ANCESTRAL.  29 

must  be  deemed  not  only  national  but  world- 
historical.  More  than  any  other  of  the  old  com 
monwealths,  she  shows  herself  to  be  the  mother  of 
States  as  well  as  of  Presidents;  she  is  verily  the 
State-producing  State  before  the  Federal  Union, 
which  indeed  derives  that  gift  from  her  both  in 
principle  and  in  act.  And  another  matter  must 
not  be  forgotten.  Virginia's  greatest  men  of  this 
period  were  hostile  to  slavery  and  sought  to  make 
her  a  Free-State,  and  actually  did  make  her  pro 
duce  Free-States,  as  we  see  by  her  act  of  ceding  the 
North  Western  Territory  in  1783,  as  well  as  by  the 
ordinance  of  1787.  Still  she  also  produced  Slave- 
States,  and  her  dualism  was  imparted  to  the  then 
formed  Union. 

Now  it  is  this  dualism  of  the  Union  as  Free- 
State  producing  and  as  Slave-State  producing, 
which  our  Abraham  Lincoln,  whom  we  may  deem 
Virginia's  grandson,  will  grapple  with  and  over 
come.  Such  is  indeed  the  deepest  thought  of  his 
career,  which  he  seemed  to  inherit  from  the  great 
men  of  Virginia  contemporary  with  his  grand 
parents.  Under  his  leadership  the  New  States  of 
the  West  which  Virginia  made  free,  will  sweep 
back  nearly  a  century  later,  and  take  the  chief 
part  in  making  her  free,  and  thus  realizing  her  own 
original  idea  of  the  State  as  creative  of  Free  States 
— an  idea  which  specially  animated  the  earlier 
career  of  Jefferson. 


30  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

II. 
Thomas  Lincoln. 

Such  was  the  name  of  the  third  son  of  grand 
father  Abraham  Lincoln.  As  a  little  boy  Thomas 
saw  his  parent  slain,  and  then  saw  the  slayer  slain 
in  turn  by  his  eldest  brother  called  Mordecai.  The 
bloody  feud  between  the  Indian  and  the  white  man 
thus  weaves  its  crimson  strand  into  the  ancestral 
line  of  the  Lincolns.  The  story  is  told  of  the  little 
fellow  standing  beside  his  father's  dead  body  in 
great  danger  of  the  tomahawk  till  the  shot  from 
his  brother's  rifle  brought  down  the  red  assassin. 
The  tragedy  of  the  frontier  is  a  part  of  our  Abraham 
Lincoln's  inheritance,  and  we  shall  see  him  later 
responding  at  once  to  a  call  for  soldiers  in  the 
Black  Hawk  War  against  the  Indians  of  the  North 
west.  As  late  as  1854,  in  a  letter,  Lincoln  alluded 
to  the  fate  of  his  grandfather  as  "the  legend  more 
strongly  than  all  others  impressed  upon  my  mind 
and  memory." 

Thomas  Lincoln  seems  to  have  had  no  share  in 
the  paternal  estate,  of  which  the  chief  heir  was  the 
eldest  son,  according  to  the  aristocratic  law  of 
primogeniture.  The  boy  was  left  to  shift  for  him 
self,  and  he  became  shiftless.  His  people  allowed 
him  to  grow  up  in  ignorance;  it  is  said  that  his 
first  wife  taught  him  to  write  his  name  in  an 
awkward  scribble.  Though  he  did  not  receive 
any  of  his  family's  property,  he  did  inherit  its 


THOMAS  LINCOLN.  31 

migratory  spirit,  which  in  him  took  the  form  of  a 
rover  flitting  about  from  place  to  place.  The 
settling  down  into  one  spot  seemed  to  be  what  un 
settled  him.  He  learned  a  trade,  that  of  carpenter, 
though  his  life  was  mostly  passed  upon  a  farm,  or 
rather  a  number  of  farms  in  Kentucky,  Indiana 
and  Illinois.  He  died  in  1851,  but  he  lived  long 
enough  to  see  the  first  eminence  of  his  son  as  lawyer 
and  Congressman. 

It  should  be  said,  however,  that  Thomas  Lincoln 
was  not  a  bad  man.  He  seems  to  have  been  quite 
free  from  the  excesses  of  the  backwoodsman.  He 
was  not  a  drunkard,  though  he  would  take  his  turn 
at  the  bottle.  He  was  religious,  but  the  borderer 
demanded  in  his  religion  a  strong  stimulant, 
worship  was  to  intoxicate  him  like  a  dram  of 
whiskey.  The  chief  indictment  against  him  is 
that  he  not  only  gave  no  encouragement  to  his 
boy's  strong  aspiration,  but  rather  suppressed  it, 
wishing  to  keep  his  progeny  in  his  own  narrow, 
hopeless  life  of  ignorance  and  poverty.  Strangely 
after  the  mother  it  was  a  step-mother  that  nursed 
the  ambition  of  the  boy,  appreciating  his  talent 
from  the  start,  and  giving  him  opportunities  for 
study.  Thomas  Lincoln  certainly  showed  that 
peculiar  paralysis  which  has  been  so  often  remarked 
in  the  poor  whites  of  the  South,  and  which  seemed 
to  attack  specially  the  younger  sons  of  the  gentility, 
who  were  too  well-born  to  work  and  too  poor  to  be 
idle. 


32  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

It  is  recorded  that  Thomas  Lincoln,  after  having 
wooed  without  success  Miss  Sallie  Bush,  a  young 
lady  of  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky,  married  in  1806 
Miss  Nancy  Hanks,  the  future  mother  of  the 
historic  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  whose  destiny  both 
these  women  have  been  interwoven,  both  being 
thereby  crowned  with  an  immortal  renown.  Recent 
investigation  claims  to  show  that  man  and  wife 
were  first  cousins,  and  that  they  were  of  a  higher 
class  in  the  community  than  has  been  generally 
supposed,  than  even  their  own  son,  Lincoln  him 
self,  supposed.  Still  we  have  to  think  that  both 
parties  belonged  to  the  humbler  class  of  the  South, 
though  the  wife  was  the  superior  of  the  husband  in 
education,  in  ability,  and  in  aspiration.  Her 
genealogy  has  been  traced,  and  her  first  American 
ancestor,  of  English  origin,  settled  in  Plymouth, 
Massachusetts  in  1699.  Thence  her  family  passed 
to  Pennsylvania,  as  it  belonged  to  the  Quaker 
communion;  next  it  is  heard  of  in  Virginia,  from 
which  it  flowed  with  the  great  stream  of  migration 
into  Kentucky.  Thus  the  forefathers'  march  of 
the  Hankses  runs  strikingly  parallel  to  that  of  the 
Lincolns,  though  wholly  independent  till  the  two 
come  together  in  Virginia  and  then  in  Central 
Kentucky,  where  they  intermingle  and  intermarry 
producing  at  last  our  Lincoln. 

So  we  conceive  these  two  ancestral  lines,  the 
Lincolns  and  the  Hankses,  starting  back  in  Old 
England  apart  in  time  and  place,  flowing  over 


THOMAS  LINCOLN.  33 

the  ocean  to  New  England,  and  then  sweeping  out 
of  the  old  States  of  the  North  into  Virginia,  whence 
they  both  pass  westward  to  the  new,  to  the  derived 
States  of  the  Union.  These,  however,  were  only 
typical  instances  of  a  great  popular  movement 
seeking  to  find  its  way  to  the  future  seat  of  the 
Nation.  A  voiceless  instinct  led  them  on,  turning 
them  not  directly  to  and  across  the  Ohio  River, 
but  first  into  Virginia  to  take  a  course  of  that 
institutional  training  which  prepared  them  to  be 
State-builders  for  the  new  Union.  This  migratory 
tide  started  many  years  before  the  Revolutionary 
War,  and  continued  many  years  after  it,  lasting, 
perhaps  a  century  or  more,  till  Virginia  decisively 
and  finally  refused  to  emancipate  herself  from  the 
black  curse,  which  emancipation  all  her  early  and 
greatest  sons  advocated.  Then  she  turned  its 
defender,  its  chief  exponent  and  supporter.  That 
was  the  time  when  she  ceased  to  bear  free  institu 
tions  and  Great  Men,  ceased  to  be  the  mother  of 
States  and  of  Presidents,  and  became  the  mother  of 
slaves  for  the  cotton  plantations  of  the  extreme 
South.  Not  reproachfully  but  regretfully  do  we 
set  down  the  record  which  has  in  it  one  of  the  most 
striking  lessons  to  Ipe  found  in  the  history  of  the 
whole  country.  Already  we  have  groped  for  the 
cause  of  Virginia's  fertility  in  Great  Men,  but  now 
there  rises  the  equally  suggestive  question  why 
she  lost  her  grandly  creative  power,  passing  into 
a  spell  of  decadence,  which  culminated  in  a  revolt 


34  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

from  the  Union,  of  which  she  was  the  intellectual 
parent,  and  in  an  alienation  from  those  Free-States 
of  the  West  which  she  had  once  mothered  with  such 
loving  foresight.  It  would  seem  that  her  institu 
tional  spirit  and  her  leadership  migrated  with  the 
progressive  migration  westward,  when  she  made 
"the  great  refusal. " 

Let  us,  however,  return  to  our  young  married 
couple,  Thomas  and  Nancy  Lincoln,  who  have 
started  out  in  life  at  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky, 
with  their  first  housekeeping.  Of  their  early  days 
we  catch  hardly  any  suggestive  glimpse  unless  it 
be  that  picture  of  the  young  wife  teaching  her 
rather  unambitious  husband  to  scrawl  his  name. 
It  has  been  handed  down  that  he  worked  fitfully 
at  his  trade,  that  of  a  carpenter,  but  he  readily 
could  turn  his  hand  to  other  kinds  of  labor.  He 
lived  in  a  log  cabin,  as  did  the  majority  of  his 
fellow-townsmen  at  that  period,  and  was  inclined 
to  take  life  easy,  seeking  no  job  but  letting  it  come 
to  him  in  its  own  good  time.  He  soon  felt  that  he 
must  change  his  locality,  and  we  find  him  after  a 
couple  of  years  on  a  little  farm  in  Hardin  County, 
Kentucky.  The  soil  was  poor,  the  husbandman 
thriftless ;  the  result  was  that  the  young  family  sank 
down  into  a  more  forlorn  condition  than  ever 
before.  Here  in  the  very  night  of  hope  a  male 
child  was  born,  February  12th,  1809.  This  child 
was  our  Abraham  Lincoln.  We  may  well  think 
that  the  mother,  from  the  deep  depression  super- 


THE  NEW  MIGRATION.  35 

induced  by  her  environment,  stamped  upon  her 
offspring  as  her  fadeless  birthmark  that  constitu 
tional  melancholy  which  everybody  saw  in  his 
features  and  felt  in  his  character. 

III. 

The  New  Migration. 

With  the  appearance  of  this  infant  coming  into 
the  world,  if  not  in  a  manger,  at  least  under  almost 
as  lowly  circumstances,  the  light  of  the  present 
biography  has  risen,  to  be  followed  till  its  setting. 
The  boy's  first  playmate  was  his  little  sister,  nearly 
two  years  older  than  himself,  who  was  born  during 
the  stay  at  Elizabethtown. 

Thomas  Lincoln,  like  the  true  rover,  soon  felt  that 
prosperity  was  not  where  he  was,  but  somewhere 
else,  and  must  now  be  chased  down  for  good. 
When  his  boy  was  about  four  years  old,  the  father 
moved  to  another  farm  some  fifteen  miles  distant, 
where  fortune  was  again  wooed.  But  success 
attended  him  in  the  new  venture  just  as  little  as  in 
the  old  ones,  and  for  the  same  reason.  Nomadic 
Tom  Lincoln  belongs  really  nowhere,  and  so  he 
cannot  find  out  where  he  belongs. 

An  important  step  may  be  chronicled  during  the 
stay  at  this  farm.  The  boy  Abraham,  with  his 
sister  was  sent  to  his  first  school.  He  has  himself 
transmitted  the  names  of  his  two  earliest  teachers, 
Zachariah  Riney  and  Caleb  Hazel.  Only  names 


36  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

they  are  to  us  now,  dim  ghosts  of  wandering 
pedagogues  on  the  frontier,  but  from  these  itin 
erant  masters  young  Lincoln  first  began  the  rudi 
ments  of  the  famous  three  disciplines — reading, 
with  possibly  a  little  writing  and  ciphering.  This 
started  him  so  that  he  could  help  himself,  and 
tradition  states  that  he  was  a  very  capable  learner 
at  this  early  time.  It  has  also  been  handed  down 
that  his  mother  taught  him  what  she  knew  and 
encouraged  him,  telling  him  the  stories  of  the 
Bible  as  well  as  the  transmitted  folk-tales  of  her 
people.  With  good  reason  she  seems  to  have 
turned  her  teaching  ambition  from  her  husband  to 
her  son. 

Having  failed  on  his  second  farm  also,  Thomas 
Lincoln  began  to  think  of  leaving  Kentucky.  He 
had  heard  of  the  fertile  and  untaken  territory 
across  the  Ohio  River  in  the  State  of  Indiana.  As 
to  his  motives  in  making  the  change,  we  may  cite 
his  son's  statement:  "This  removal  was  partly 
on  account  of  slavery,  but  chiefly  on  account  of  the 
difficulty  in  land  titles  in  Kentucky."  Lincoln 
gave  this  account  of  his  father  in  1860,  after  his 
nomination  for  the  Presidency,  to  be  used  in  a 
campaign  life  of  himself.  Hence  the  allusion  to 
slavery  is  probably  made  as  prominent  as  the  truth 
permitted.  The  difficulty  in  land  titles  seems  to 
have  been  this :  Thomas  Lincoln  bought  his  farms 
on  credit,  giving  promissory  notes,  secured  by  deeds 
of  trust.  The  notes  fell  due  and  were  not  paid ;  the 


THE  NEW  MIGRATION.  37 

land  reverted  to  the  original  owner  and  Thomas 
Lincoln  had  to  vacate  the  premises.  Such  was 
"the  difficulty  in  land  titles/'  present  not  only  in 
Kentucky  but  everywhere.  The  son  could  not 
well  give  any  detailed  explanation  in  a  campaign 
document,  and  so  passed  it  over  with  a  small 
euphemism. 

The  second  cause  assigned,  that  of  slavery,  has 
been  sometimes  emphasized  beyond^  its  merits. 
Easy-going  Tom  Lincoln  never  exercised  his 
rather  sluggish  brain  much  with  the  abhorrence 
of  slavery.  Still  we  are  to  see  that  it  had  an  in 
fluence  upon  his  movements,  even  if  such  influence 
was  mainly  unconscious.  Kentucky  had  received 
that  early  stream  of  migration  from  Virginia,  and 
had  become  pretty  well  settled  while  the  States 
across  the  Ohio  River  were  as  yet  largely  un 
touched.  But  with  the  growth  of  population  slav 
ery  had  grown,  having  now  become  "the  peculiar 
institution,"  and  was  producing  its  well-known 
effects  in  begetting  Classism  and  in  degrading 
free  labor.  The  result  was  that  the  white  working 
man  began  to  flee  the  State  and  to  cross  the  Ohio 
River  to  a  non-slaveholding  territory,  decreed 
such  by  the  famous  ordinance  of  1787.  Thus  we 
find  the  Lincolns  and  the  Hankses,  with  many 
others,  making  a  new  turn  in  their  long  line  of 
migration,  and  passing  northward  into  the  Free- 
States  of  Indiana  and  Illinois.  For  two  genera 
tions  the}''  had  lived  in  Slave-States,  and  had  been 


38  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

largely  transformed  into  the  poor  white  Southerner, 
illiterate  and  shiftless.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
slavery  produced  an  unhoping  lethargy  in  the 
white  laborer,  who,  if  any  ambition  was  left  in  him, 
would  quit  the  State,  or  if  he  stayed,  would  drop 
into  a  lower  and  more  hopeless  condition  of  life. 
Thus  Thomas  Lincoln  was  carried  by  a  great  tide 
of  migration  more  than  by  his  conscious  purpose, 
though  he  deserves  credit  that  he  did  not  stay 
where  he  and  his  family  were  liable  to  sink  deeper 
down  into  the  social  slough.  Slavery  may  be 
deemed  chiefly  the  cause  of  his  departure,  even 
though  he  was  not  fully  aware  of  the  fact,  since  he 
moved  with  the  stream. 

So  it  came  about  that  Thomas  Lincoln,  in  the 
fall  of  1816,  was  making  preparation  to  go  to 
Indiana.  His  procedure  was  unique.  On  a  small 
neighboring  run  he  built  a  flat-boat,  loading  it 
with  his  tools  and  with  a  cargo  of  four  hundred 
gallons  of  whiskey,  in  which  he  saw  a  speculation 
based  on  the  thirst  of  the  Hoosiers.  He  floated 
down  the  run  into  a  larger  creek  which  bore  him 
into  the  Ohio  River,  in  whose  surly  waters  his 
rickety  craft  upset,  his  whole  cargo  plunging  into 
the  stream.  He  fished  out  his  tools  and  a  part  of 
the  whiskey,  fixed  up  his  boat,  and  started  again 
down  the  turbid  current.  At  last  he  brought  to, 
and  pushed  sixteen  miles  inland  where  he  picked  out 
a  piece  of  primeval  forest,  and  bought  it  from  the 
Land  Office  at  Vincennes.  Then  he  trudged  back 


THE  NEW  MIGRATION.  39 

home  to  Kentucky  and  fetched  his  wife  and 
children,  with  household  effects.  But  he  took  this 
time  a  wagon,  avoiding  evidently  the  flat-boat. 
At  last  he  reached  his  new  home  on  Little  Pidgeon 
Creek  in  Spencer  County,  Indiana.  Thus  the 
Lincoln-Hanks  line  of  migration  has  come  north 
ward  into  a  Free-State — a  little  event  which  is 
destined  to  have  a  world-historical  consequence. 
This  line  we  have  seen  originally  moving  out  of 
the  North  and  making  a  long  detour  through 
Virginia  and  Kentucky,  wherein,  however,  they 
were  but  drops  in  a  great  migratory  current.  It 
should  be  added,  as  a  significant  mark  of  the  time 
and  of  the  men,  that  both  the  brothers  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  crossed  the  Ohio  River  out  of  the  Slave- 
State  into  a  Free-State — the  one  having  gone 
before  him  into  Indiana,  and  the  other,  the  eldest 
and  the  heir  of  the  house,  having  passed  after  him, 
into  Illinois. 

Again  let  us  ponder  the  epoch-making  fact  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  child  was  borne  in  that  vast 
swirl  of  migration  which  once  swept  from  the  North 
into  the  more  genial  climate  of  the  South,  where 
it  dashed  upon  an  obstacle,  slavery,  which  seemed 
at  first  weak,  if  not  vanishing,  but  which  gradually 
became  stronger  and  firmer  till  it  at  last  deflected 
that  migratory  current,  or  a  large  part  of  it,  around 
towards  the  North  again,  into  the  new  States  of 
the  West.  Slavery  in  the  Revolutionary  Period 
was  regarded  as  moribund,  but  it  took  a  new  lease 


40  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

of  life,  being  galvanized  chiefly  by  the  invention  of 
Whitney's  cotton-gin  (1793).  Slavery  and  its 
profits  increased  enormously,  but  immigration  de 
creased;  indeed,  the  ever-renewing  human  current 
turned  away,  quitting  the  South,  to  which  it  once 
mainly  flowed,  and  bearing  in  its  bosom  North 
ward  young  Abraham  Lincoln,  destined  to  be  its 
greatest  product  and  supreme  representative. 

The  spirit  in  this  migratory  separation  from  the 
South  indicates  at  least  dissatisfaction  with  the 
new  trend  there  towards  slavery.  The  Folk-Soul 
shows  itself  to  be  seeking  the  Free-State,  and  to  be 
productive  of  the  Free-State  as  its  political  institu 
tion.  This  instinct,  quite  unconscious,  lay  in  the 
movement  to  which  Abraham  Lincoln  belonged, 
and  in  which  he  participated.  Here  we  may 
catch  an  early  glimpse  of  the  Folk-Soul  which  he 
is  finally  to  voice  and  to  organize  into  a  party 
whose  conscious  and  expressed  aim  is  to  make  the 
Union  productive  of  Free  States  only.  So  we  see 
that  Lincoln  simply  uttered  what  had  long  been 
engendering  and  throbbing  in  the  Folk-Soul  of  the 
West. 

We  may  well  empahsize  again  that  these  immi 
grants,  having  taken  the  Virginia  dip,  bore  with 
them  through  all  their  wanderings  her  strong  sense 
of  institutions,  as  well  as  her  deepest  political 
principle,  which  may  be  designated  as  the  State- 
producing  State.  Of  this  principle  they  were  to 
become  the  propagators  in  peace  as  well  as  the 


THE  INDIANA  HOME.  41 

vindicators  in  war.  But  on  the  other  hand  we 
must  also  take  note  that  they  turned  away  from 
Virginia  as  productive  of  Slave-States,  notably  in 
case  of  Kentucky,  often  called  the  child  of  Virginia. 
Hence  we  see  them  wheeling  out  of  Kentucky 
into  the  North-west,  in  which  Virginia  had  shown 
her  other  side,  namely  as  productive  of  Free-States, 
and  which  accordingly  corresponded  with  their 
own  institutional  character,  fostered  if  not  de 
rived  from  the  great  creative  period  of  Virginia  and 
her  statesmen.  This  was  indeed  the  very  soul 
of  the  North-west,  being  that  which  created  it  and 
remained  its  innermost  nature.  The  Folk-Soul 
we  call  it,  of  which  Lincoln  became  first  the  in 
stinctive  bearer,  then  the  voice,  and  finally  the 
instrument  of  its  realization. 

IV. 
The  Indiana  Home. 

In  the  midst  of  the  primeval  forest  Thomas  Lin 
coln  began  to  build  a  shelter  for  his  family  during 
the  inclement  season  which  was  at  hand.  This 
shelter  was  a  cabin  of  unhewn  logs,  fourteen  feet 
square,  enclosed  on  three  sides,  the  fourth  side  be 
ing  left  open  and  serving  for  door  and  windows. 
It  had  no  floor,  and  very  little  rude  furniture;  it 
was  not  called  a  house  but  a  camp,  "  a  half-face 
camp"  in  the  dialect  the  backwoods.  It  resembled 
a  built  cave  rather,  and  the  family  had  a  taste  of 


42          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

the  primordial  cave-life  of  their  remote  ancestors. 
Thus  Thomas  Lincoln  is  getting  back  to  his  origin, 
and  with  his  family  is  living  over  again  an  early 
chapter  in  the  life  of  his  race,  strangely  carrying 
out  some  modern  ideas  of  education. 

We  must  keep  our  eye  upon  young  Abraham 
who,  now  in  his  eighth  year,  entered  upon  this 
new  phase  of  his  discipline.  The  physical  environ 
ment  was  here  quite  different  from  that  which  he 
had  experienced  in  Kentucky.  Around  him  on  all 
sides  stood  the  dense  forest  which  had  its  own  in 
habitants — bear,  deer,  turkey,  and  smaller  animals. 
Nature  revealed  herself  to  him  in  her  wild,  exuber 
ant  mood,  being  far  more  productive  here  than  in 
the  poorer  soil  of  the  Kentucky  farm.  The  boy 
became  a  pioneer,  an  axe  was  put  into  his  hands 
and  he  began  with  his  parents  the  struggle  for  ex 
istence  on  the  border  of  civilization.  Since  its  first 
settlement  for  two  hundred  years,  America  had 
reared  a  hardy  and  unique  race  of  pioneers ;  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  is  also  to  pass  through  this  stage  of 
his  country's  development,  repeating  the  luck  and 
lot  of  his  own  ancestors,  and  the  experience  will 
leave  its  mark  upon  him  to  the  last. 

During  a  whole  year  the  Lincoln  family  held 
their  fortress,  "the  half-face  camp",  against  the 
assaults  of  wind  and  rain,  of  snow  and  ice,  thus 
maintaining  its  own  amid  all  the  weather  caprices 
of  winter  and  summer.  Then  a  new  cabin  was 
ready,  enclosed  now  on  its  fourth  side,  fully  eigh- 


THE  INDIANA  HOME.  43 

teen  feet  square,  and  built  of  hewn  logs,  think  of 
it !  Surely,  careless  Tom  Lincoln  is  getting  stylish 
if  not  extravagant.  The  old  building,  "the  half- 
face  camp  ",  is  handed  over  to  a  new  batch  of  emi 
grants,  relatives  leaving  Kentucky,  atoms  swim 
ming  in  that  migratory  stream  over  the  Ohio  and 
dropping  down  in  the  Free-States  of  the  North- 
West.  Very  striking  is  the  fact  that  Kentucky  at 
this  time  seems  quite  fully  settled  and  overflowing, 
while  just  across  the  river  in  Indiana  are  the  back 
woods. 

It  was  indeed  a  straitened  existence.  Not  much 
money  was  in  circulation,  trade  fell  back  largely 
upon  primitive  barter.  We  hear  that .  coon-skins 
passed  for  money,  and  that  hams  of  the  hog  and 
deer  were  a  legal  tender.  To  get  food  was  not  so 
difficult,  the  neighboring  woods  furnished  free  meat 
for  the  human  animal  now  growing  more  and  more 
carnivorous.  Abraham  Lincoln  reports  that  he  shot 
a  wild  turkey  through  the  chink  of  the  cabin.  The 
ground  was  cleared  of  its  trees,  and  some  grain  was 
sown — enough  for  corn-dodgers  and  pone  and  hom 
iny  all  the  week,  and  for  wheat  cakes  once  a  week,  of 
Sunday  mornings.  As  to  clothing,  the  household 
could  and  often  did  furnish  it  from  the  fleece  of 
wool,  especially  the  linsey-wolsey  shirt;  deer  skins 
were  cut  and  sewed  into  a  kind  of  rude  shoe  or  moc 
casin,  as  well  as  pantaloons;  the  winter  overcoat 
of  fur  was  robbed  from  the  bear,  and  the  coon  fur 
nished  the  head-gear  for  nothing. 


44  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

Behold  then  that  life  of  the  young  pioneer  truly 
self-sufficing,  independent.  The  three  great  op 
pressors  of  man,  food,  raiment  and  shelter,  are 
met  by  the  man  himself  single-handed,  and  van 
quished  without  calling  to  his  aid  the  Social  Sys 
tem,  the  Economic  Order.  He  builds  his  own 
house  without  the  architect,  makes  his  own  cloth 
ing  without  the  tailor,  gets  his  own  food  directly 
from  Nature — surely  an  individual  sufficient  unto 
himself.  The  whole  social  process,  now  become  so 
vast  and  intricate,  is  performed  in  that  little  cabin 
of  the  frontiersman,  by  himself  and  his  family. 
No  doubt  it  is  the  germinal  process  of  civilization, 
which  here  the  youthful  Abraham  has  practically 
to  appropriate  in  its  primal  simplicity  and  com 
pleteness. 

And  now  let  us  picture  our  boy  seizing  hold  of  a 
peg  fastened  in  the  logs  of  the  cabin  wall;  there  is 
a  row  of  these  pegs  running  up  to  a  kind  of  loft 
where  is  a  pile  of  corn-shucks  and  leaves.  This  is 
the  boy's  bed,  quite  like  that  of  the  animals  out 
side  in  the  woods.  Covered  with  skins  if  it  be  cold 
weather,  he  takes  his  rest.  When  the  time  comes 
he  skips  down  the  pegs  out  of  his  nest  and  starts 
the  morning  blaze  in  the  fire-place,  by  whose  light 
he  can  often  be  seen  taking  furtive  glances  into 
a  book  which  he  cautiously  draws  from  its  hiding 
place  in  a  chink,  encouraged  by  his  mother  and 
perchance  screened  by  her  lest  the  irate  father 
might  interfere  with  the  boy's  studies. 


THE  INDIANA  HOME.  45 

Such  was  the  natural  primitive  life  of  the  Lin 
coln  family  when  a  new  enemy  appeared.  The 
demon  of  disease  swooped  down  upon  the  little 
settlement  and  carried  off  many  victims,  not  spar 
ing  the  cattle.  It  was  called  the  milk-sickness, 
and  soon  had  in  its  clutches  the  mother  of  the 
household,  Nancy  Lincoln.  There  was  no  physician 
within  thirty-five  miles.  The  poor  woman  died 
and  was  buried  in  the  most  humble  fashion  by 
her  husband,  who  made  a  rude  coffin  out  of  green 
timber.  The  report  runs  that  the  son,  still  a  boy, 
obtained  a  minister  to  perform  the  burial  ceremo 
nies  over  the  grave  of  his  mother  some  months 
afterward. 

This  occurred  in  1818.  A  year  of  motherlessness 
for  the  two  children  followed  in  that  log  cabin, 
during  which  the  sister,  then  eleven  years  old, 
must  have  in  part  filled  the  missing  place  of  the 
mother. 

So  vanishes  from  the  stage  of  life  Nancy  Hanks 
Lincoln,  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  deathless 
through  the  fame  of  her  son,  who  seems  hardly  to 
have  recognized  her.  As  he  was  in  his  tenth  year 
when  she  passed  away,  she  must  have  nursed  his 
earliest  aspiration,  and  have  directed  his  primal 
bent  toward  the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  Even 
her  own  husband,  quite  indifferent  to  learning,  she 
taught  to  write  his  name,  as  tradition  says;  how 
much  more  effort  would  she  naturally  lavish  upon 
her  boy  who  certainly  responded  to  her  eagerness. 


46  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

She  imparted  to  him  his  first  acquaintance  with 
the  Bible,  instilling  into  him  its  precepts;  also  the 
tales  of  the  Western  People  she  told  him  with  bits 
of  family  history  during  its  great  migration,  of 
which  record  the  woman  is  usually  the  depository 
and  propagator.  Lincoln  was  first  spiritually 
shaped  by  his  own  mother  during  his  childhood  of 
nine  years  and  more;  yet  he  seemingly  never  ap 
preciated  fully  the  fact  when  he  spoke  of  his  early 
life.  Time,  however,  has  been  doing  justice  to 
her  part  in  the  formation  of  her  son,  and  even  to 
her  name,  which  has  been  clouded.  Sympathetic 
hearts  have  found  her  lonely  grave  and  fittingly 
marked  its  site,  rescuing  it  from  oblivion.  Open 
ing  her  weary  eyes  in  that  rude  cabin  for  a  final 
look  at  her  husband  and  children;  especially,  one 
thinks,  resting  her  last  glance  upon  her  boy,  the 
mother  of  Lincoln  turns  her  face  to  the  wall  and 
passes  beyond. 

Like  many  a  man  born  outside  the  common  run 
of  mortality,  Lincoln  brooded  over  his  origin,  and 
sometimes  threw  out  wondering  doubts  as  to 
whence  he  came.  He  differed  much  from  all  the 
Hankses  whom  he  had  ever  known,  and  even  more 
from  his  father  Lincoln,  shiftless,  ignorant,  unas 
piring,  with  no  limit-transcending  impulse  or 
capacity.  That  was  and  still  is  the  mystery  of  his 
genius,  for  it  is  genius  which  breaks  down  the  law 
of  inheritance.  Genius  refuses  to  be  derived  from 
parents,  or  to  be  transmitted  to  children;  it  seems 


THE  INDIANA  HOME.  47 

to  drop  down  from  supernal  sources  upon  this  one 
individual  and  then  to  take  its  flight  beyond  with 
the  cessation  of  life.  In  the  line  of  descent  Genius 
has  no  father  and  leaves  no  son :  a  fact  which  seems 
to  have  worried  Lincoln  and  to  have  called  up 
many  a  dubious  speculation  in  regard  to  himself, 
conscious  as  he  was  of  the  divine  gift.  Now  what 
ever  may  be  the  case  in  Heaven,  on  earth  the  sort 
of  the  divine  father  is  not  usually  divine,  but 
drops  back  into  the  terrestrial  line  of  his  grand 
father.  Property,  disease,  the  Particular  can  be 
inherited,  but  not  the  Universal,  which  somehow 
insists  upon  selecting  its  own  heir,  quite  apart  from 
the  ancestral  strain,  which  may  at  most  color 
in  spots  the  God's  presence.  So  we  behold  the 
epiphany  of  Genius  on  our  planet,  wondering 
whence  it  comes  and  whither  it  goes;  hardly  more 
do  we  know  than  this,  that  the  Great  Man  does  get 
incarnated  about  the  right  moment,  and  if  he  be 
of  a  reflective  bent,  he  will  have  many  musings 
over  his  own  incarnation. 

Biographer  Herndon  has  repeatedly  touched 
upon  this  tendency  of  Lincoln  to  peer  into  the 
abysses  of  his  own  being,  which  involved  him  in 
questionings  and  speculations,  and  even  doubts 
about  his  parentage.  To  our  mind  it  was  his 
genius  seeking  to  fathom  the  mystery  of  its  own 
origin,  which  is  quite  unfathomable  as  to  its  finite 
appearance  in  Time.  Ground,  cause,  even  evolu 
tion  seem  to  break  down  in  trying  to  catch  and 


48          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

circumscribe  Genius  in  its  descent  into  this  indi 
vidual  just  here  and  now.  Lincoln,  therefore, 
found  it  hard  to  account  for  himself  on  the  spot, 
but  the  Future  will  unfold  him  and  his  work 
more  and  more,  and  that  will  be  his  true  explana 
tion. 

V. 

The  Step-Mother. 

About  a  year  after  his  wife's  death,  widower 
Thomas  Lincoln  seems  to  be  brushing  up  a  little, 
he  is  getting  to  pay  some  attention  to  his  personal 
appearance.  There  is  no  perceptible  cause  for  this 
change  in  the  neighborhood  of  Little  Pidgeon 
Creek.  Having  saved  some  money,  one  day  he 
put  on  his  best,  and  set  out  for  Elizabethtown, 
Kentucky,  the  place  where  he  spent  some  time  as 
a  young  man  learning  his  carpenter's  trade.  There 
is  little  doubt,  though  the  record  has  not  been 
handed  down,  that  on  arriving  he  took  the  shortest 
road  to  the  house  of  Mrs.  Sallie  Bush  Johnston, 
now  a  widow,  but  whom  as  a  young  lady  he  had 
never  forgotten.  For,  according  to  a  tradition  of 
the  gossips  of  the  town,  he  had  been  rejected  by 
her  in  the  days  of  their  freedom.  Set  it  down  to 
the  credit  of  Thomas  Lincoln  (for  he  needs  it)  that 
the  spark  of  true  love  never  died  out  in  his  bosom, 
but  began  to  flicker  and  sputter,  and  finally  to 
blaze  up  in  the  solitary  life  of  his  cabin.  At  last  it 
impels  him  to  take  the  aforesaid  journey. 


THE  STEP-MOTHER.  49 

It  is  declared  that  Miss  Sallie  Bush    and    her 
family  belonged  to  the  better  class  of  people,  to 
the  "  quality  "  of  that  Kentucky  town.  Our  worthy 
reporter  Herndon  cites  the  statement  of  one  of  her 
neighbors  evidently   at  first  hand:     " Life  among 
the  Hankses  and  Lincolns  was  a  long  ways  below 
life  among  the  Bushes."     These  words    have  a 
smack  of  that  class-pride  which,  proper  enough  in 
its  limits,  in  its  excess  became  the  bane  of  Ken 
tucky  and  of  the  whole  South,  and  is  usually  re 
garded  as  one  of  the  effects  of  "  the  peculiar  insti 
tution."     The   hardy  pioneers   of  the  Common 
wealth  had  little  of  it,  but  already  it  was  at  work 
in  Kentucky  during  the  second  decade  of  the  nine 
teenth  century,  and  in  Virginia  long  before.    The 
white  non-slaveholding  laborer  felt  and  heard  the 
contempt    (perceptible    slightly   in  the  foregoing 
citation),  picked  up  his   belongings  and  quit  the 
State  for  the  north  side  of  the  Ohio  river,  where 
population,     wealth     and    general     development 
rapidly  outstripped  the  new,  though  older  slave 
States  to  the  South. 

After  a  brief  wooing  Mrs.  Johnston  yielded.  At 
first  she  is  said  to  have  hesitated,  having  three 
children  on  her  hands  from  her  first  marriage  and 
owing  some  debts  which  she  wished  to  pay  off 
first.  Sly  Thomas,  getting  a  list  of  these  debts, 
slips  away  and  pays  them  the  same  evening.  They 
could  not  have  been  large,  seemingly  not  much 
more  than  an  excuse  to  stave  off  the  importunate 


50  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

suitor.  But  the  transaction  showed  Lincoln's  love, 
and  when  he  shook  the  receipts  in  her  face,  she 
gave  her  hand  in  return,  and  the  license  was  issued 
next  morning.  The  marriage  took  place,  whereat 
all  the  tongues  of  the  town  were  set  to  wagging  in 
a  common  refrain:  Widow  Johnston  has  married 
beneath  her  station.  But  she  soon  packed  her 
household  articles  in  a  wagon  and  was  speeding  up 
the  road  for  Indiana. 

What  was  it  won  the  woman's  heart?  She  loves 
his  love  rather  than  the  man  himself.  She  had  a 
touch  of  aristocratic  pride,  and  yet  she  descended 
to  poor,  unthrifty  Tom  Lincoln  whom  she  knew 
well.  Some  have  supposed  that  he  deceived  her 
by  painting  his  Indiana  prospects  in  too  glowing 
colors.  But  she  is  not  known  to  have  manifested 
any  great  disappointment  in  that  respect.  It  is 
the  old  story:  the  woman  is  taken  by  the  man 
whose  devotion  conquers  her,  though  she  knows 
him  to  be  of  small  account.  So  we  may  for  a 
moment  look  at  Thomas  Lincoln  as  the  hero  of  a 
sunny  little  idyl.  And  there  is  no  doubt  that  in 
this  woman  he  won  the  greatest  prize  of  his  life. 
The  moment  she  stepped  into  that  cheerless  cabin 
of  his,  it  began  to  be  transfigured.  She  required 
the  husband  to  show  his  devotion  in  a  new  way. 
Under  her  command  he  changes  the  dirt  floor  of 
his  abode  into  one  made  of  wood,  and  then  he 
adds  the  hitherto  missing  doors  and  windows.  She 
brought  a  quantity  of  good  furniture  and  bedding; 


THE  STEP-MOTHER.  51 

notably  "a  walnut  bureau  valued  at  fifty  dol 
lars,"  probably  an  heirloom.  She  washed  and 
dressed  up  her  two  step-children,  and  their  nest  of 
leaves  and  corn  husks  was  changed  for  a  comfort 
able  feather  bed.  Even  the  husband  seemed  to 
modify  his  character  for  the  better  under  that 
fresh  inspiration  of  the  renovated  household.  So  a 
woman,  in  her  way  heroic,  comes  into  the  life  of 
young  Abraham  Lincoln,  now  in  his  eleventh  year. 
Her  difficulties  were  not  small :  among  others  two 
sets  of  children,  boys  and  girls  on  each  side,  were 
growing  up  in  that  one-roomed  cabin.  There  was 
a  good  opportunity  for  quarreling,  also  for  mixing 
too  freely.  The  evidence  shows  that  the  mother 
was  aware  of  both  dangers  and  guarded  against 
them  with  success. 

The  great  fact  now  before  us  is  that  such  a 
woman  takes  charge  of  the  boy  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  becomes  his  second  mother  at  a  time  when  he 
needed  a  strong  will  to  protect  him  in  his  striving. 
And  the  story  must  not  be  left  untold  that  Sallie 
Bush  after  her  first  marriage  remained  on  friendly 
terms  with  the  Lincolns,  and  that  she  took  a 
special  liking  to  little  Abe,  bringing  him  to  the 
store  of  Mr.  Helm  (who  tells  the  tale)  in  Elizabeth- 
town  for  tidbits,  and  showing  her  fondness  in  vari 
ous  ways.  All  this  must  have  occurred  before 
the  boy  was  past  seven  years  old,  and  before  the 
Lincolns  had  moved  to  Indiana.  Already  she  may 
have  divined  his  genius,  and  felt  her  deep  relation 


52  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

to  that  boy,  deeper  than  any  relation  she  had  or 
could  have  to  her  own  children.  And  that  may 
have  been  the  stronger  though  hidden  motive  to 
her  surprising  marriage.  For  time  will  prove  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  her  soul's  child  by  a  tie 
more  profound  and  coercive  than  consanguinity. 
She  herself  late  in  life  thought  so  and  said  so  amid 
tears  for  her  martyred  son,  who,  she  foreboded, 
would  never  return  alive  from  the  Presidency.  She 
was  accustomed  to  declare  that  "  my  mind  and 
Abe's  ran  together."  Let  Thomas  Lincoln  have 
the  credit  that  he  chose  such  a  woman,  who  could 
love  his  love  in  spite  of  the  man.  But  the  interest 
of  all  time  to  come  centers  upon  the  part  she  had 
in  the  training  of  his  boy,  as  she  furnished  the 
very  sunlight  in  which  his  youth  flowered. 

It  is  evident  that  the  step-mother  was  far  more 
active,  aggressive,  ambitious  for  appearance, 
through  her  higher  standard  of  living,  than  the 
real  mother,  who  comes  before  us  as  a  patient, 
passive,  much-enduring  soul.  She  seems  to  take 
what  comes,  to  accept  her  husband  as  he  is  with 
out  trying  to  transform  him  except  in  the  one 
early  instance  of  teaching  him  to  write  his  name. 
Resignation  was  apparently  her  character  and  her 
reiigionc  Emotion  seems  to  have  been  her  salient 
trait,  which  also  went  over  into  her  boy.  But  now 
a  very  different  sort  of  woman  enters  the  too  easy 
going  household,  a  woman  of  will,  not  however 
without  kindness  or  sympathy.  Under  her  train- 


THE  STEP-MOTHER.  53 

ing  the  youthful  Abraham  henceforth  comes,  seem 
ingly  at  the  right  moment.  She  will  impart  to 
him  purpose,  strength,  a  new  ideal  of  living. 

So  we  conceive  the  shares  of  the  two  mothers  in 
the  boy's  development.  They  were  not  only  dif 
ferent  but  antipathetic;  the  step-mother  showed 
not  only  her  diverse  nature,  but  her  class  prejudice 
against  the  mother.  This  is  the  one  doubt  which 
we  have  to  record  against  the  second  Mrs.  Thomas 
Lincoln.  We  have  to  think  that  she  influenced 
her  step-son  in  his  strange  attitude  toward  his 
own  mother,  really  a  disregard  for  her  memory. 

Without  expanding  further  this  dark  but 
delicate  point,  let  us  pass  to  the  bright  side  of  the 
present  relation,  which  reveals  Mrs.  Thomas 
Lincoln  as  the  paragon  of  her  kind.  She  belies 
all  the  proverbs,  fairy-tales,  and  folk-lore  of  the 
ages  which  take  delight  in  besmirching  the  step 
mother.  Difficult,  indeed,  is  her  task,  and  every 
neighbor  seems  bent  on  making  it  more  difficult. 
With  such  an  accumulated  burden  on  her  hands 
she  often  fails,  probably  in  the  majority  of  cases. 
But  the  step-mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln  must  be 
pronounced  the  great  exception,  under  the  most 
trying  circumstances.  She  it  was  who  nursed  his 
genius  when  it  most  needed  such  care.  Will  she 
had,  and  a  very  strong  one;  this  is  what  chiefly 
looks  out  in  that  face  of  hers  which  we  see  pictured 
in  the  books  on  Lincoln.  Yet  hers  was  a  will 
tempered  with  duty,  especially  to  that  one  member 


54  .         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

of  ner  household,  whose  greatness  she  certainly 
forefelt.  And  his  gratitude  and  recognition  were 
unstinted.  But  that  tender  heart  of  his  with  its 
boundless  sympathy,  which  lay  even  deeper  than 
will,  was  the  priceless  gift  of  his  mother,  Nancy 
Hanks  Lincoln. 

VI. 

Lincoln's  Schooling. 

What  inference  shall  we  draw  from  Lincoln's 
slender  means  for  getting  even  an  elementary 
education?  Have  opportunities  really  become 
too  great,  so  that  they  are  undermining  the  self- 
reliance  of  our  youth?  Such  statements  we  hear 
now  and  then.  But  we  have  to  think  that  Lincoln 
was  Lincoln  in  spite  of  the  defects  of  his  scholar 
ship.  He  would  have  been  the  same  and  have 
done  his  work  if  he  had  possessed  more  or  even  less 
learning.  His  Apprenticeship  would  have  con 
tinued,  till  it  had  completed  itself,  if  not  this  year 
then  the  next,  or  the  next  after  that.  The  quantity 
of  erudition  is  important,  but  not  all-important. 
Genius  can  make  a  little  do,  even  if  it  has  not  much 
besides  itself.  Still  it  has  to  be  unfolded,  and  has 
to  have  its  favorable  environment,  which  was  not 
wanting  in  the  case  of  Lincoln. 

He  has  handed  down  the  names  of  his  early 
teachers  in  the  two  brief  sketches  of  his  life  written 
by  himself.  Already  we  have  mentioned  his  first 
schooling  in  Kentucky.  What  he  acquired  there 


LINCOLN'S  SCHOOLING.  55 

is  unknown;  but  it  is  likely  that  he,  a  bright  boy 
in  his  seventh  and  eighth  year,  learned  to  read, 
and  obtained  a  little  start  in  figures  and  in  writing, 
being  assisted  by  his  mother,  who  was  likely  to 
keep  his  lessons  alive  after  arriving  in  the  woods 
on  Little  Pidgeon  Creek,  Indiana. 

Not  till  he  was  ten  years  old  did  he  go  to  his  next 
school,  the  first  one  for  him  in  his  new  home, 
kept  by  a  teacher  of  the  name  of  Dorsey.  Four 
years  more  passed  before  he  could  get  to  another 
itinerant  master,  Andrew  Crawford,  who  in  addi 
tion  to  the  customary  branches,  gave  to  those 
backwoods  children  lessons  in  good  manners,  not 
without  insight  into  their  needs.  Lincoln  was  now 
fourteen  years  old,  and  made  the  most  of  his  oppor 
tunities,  getting  probably  the  longest  and  best 
spell  of  his  schooling.  Three  years  later  he  started 
to  go  to  Master  Swaney's,  but  he  had  to  walk  over 
four  miles,  and  he  soon  stopped  or  was  stopped  by 
his  father,  who  wanted  him  for  work,  and  who 
thought  that  so  much  learning  was  unnecessary, 
as  he  had  gotten  along  without  it.  Or  it  might 
positively  ruin  the  boy,  for  young  Abraham  had 
had  already  gained  the  double  reputation  of  being 
both  lazy  and  a  student. 

In  fact,  to  obtain  what  education  he  had,  a  con 
tinual  struggle  had  been  going  on  in  the  household, 
the  step-mother  always  protecting  and  encouraging 
her  step-son,  whom  she  soon  regarded  as  her 
Heaven-sent  ward.  Since  she  lived  till  1869,  and 


56          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

was  visited  and  questioned  oy  investigators,  she 
has  left  on  record  some  suggestive  glimpses  into 
the  early  life  of  the  Lincolns  in  Indiana,  particu 
larly  as  regards  the  schooling  of  young  Abraham. 

Says  she:  "I  induced  my  husband  to  permit 
Abe  to  study  at  home  as  well  as  at  school.  At 
first  he  was  not  easily  reconciled  to  it,  but  finally 
he  too  seemed  willing  to  encourage  him  to  a 
certain  extent."  That  is,  the  wife  in  that  noisy 
unstudious  household  is  gently  but  firmly  asserting 
herself  in  favor  of  the  studious  child,  though  but 
her  step-son,  in  whom  she  saw  such  talent  and 
aspiration.  Then  she  continues:  "Abe  was  a 
dutiful  son  to  me  always,  and  we  took  particular 
pains  not  to  disturb  him — would  let  him  read  on 
and  on  till  he  quit  of  his  own  accord."  She  com 
manded  quiet  to  the  domestic  uproar  made  by 
four  other  children  and  several  grown  people 
usually,  so  that  the  only  person  of  hope  among 
them  might  get  his  lesson  and  prepare  himself  for 
his  work. 

Another  precious  bit  from  the  same  source  has 
been  preserved,  expressing  the  deep  sympathy,  the 
concordance  of  soul  between  the  two:  "Abe  was 
a  good  boy  and  I  can  say  what  scarcely  one  woman 
— a  mother — can  say  in  a  thousand:  Abe  never 
gave  me  a  cross  word  or  look,  and  never  refused  in 
fact  or  appearance,  to  do  anything  I  requested 
him.  I  never  gave  him  a  cross  word  in  my  life." 
She  felt  him  to  be  her  son,  her  spiritual  child: 


LINCOLN'S  SCHOOLING.  57 

"His  mind  and  mine — what  little  I  had — seemed 
to  run  together."  There  is  no  doubt  that  she 
regarded  it  her  chief  vocation  to  be  mother  to  that 
boy,  who  was  hers  by  a  deeper  tie  than  blood. 
Far  more  than  her  own  son  and  her  other  children 
was  this  step-son  hers,  though  she  touches  the  fact 
tenderly:  "I  had  a  son  John  who  was  raised  with 
Abe.  Both  were  good  boys;  but  I  must  say,  both 
being  dead  now,  that  Abe  was  the  best  boy  I  ever 
saw,  or  expect  to  see."  So  the  mother  looks  back 
at  her  two  boys  living  still  in  the  Little  Pidgeon 
Creek  home;  she  judges  both  in  the  most  affec 
tionate  way,  but  decides  absolutely  in  favor  of 
her  step-son.  The  truth  is,  John  Johnston,  her 
son,  was  a  good-natured,  good-for-nothing  ne'er- 
do-weel,  who,  during  his  life  gave  trouble  enough 
to  his  mother  and  to  Lincoln  through  his  ineradi 
cable  vagrancy.  "You  are  not  lazy  and  still  you 
are  an  idler,"  says  Lincoln  in  a  keen  and  kind 
letter  to  him,  proposing  an  excellent  recipe  for  the 
trouble  (Works,  L,  p.  164). 

In  this  connection  may  be  cited  those  deep- 
toned  utterances  gushing  spotaneously  from  the 
mother's  heart,  whose  preservation  we  owe  to 
Herndon.  "I  did  not  want  Abe  to  run  for  Presi 
dent,  and  did  not  want  to  see  him  elected.  I  was 
afraid  that  something  would  happen  to  him. 
And  when  he  came  down  to  see  me  after  he  was 
elected  President,  I  still  felt,  and  my  heart  told  me, 
that  something  would  befall  him,  and  that  I  should 


58  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

never  see  him  again."  Not  many  passages  in 
literature  well  up  from  sources  so  deep  and  pure 
as  that.  And  it  may  be  added  that  Lincoln  him 
self  had  the  same  ever-lurking  premonition  of  his 
fate. 

Clear  it  is  without  the  strong  will  of  that  sym 
pathetic  step-mother  standing  guard  for  him, 
Lincoln  would  never  have  had  the  chance  to  go  to 
school  on  Little  Pidgeon  Creek,  and  no  opportunity 
for  study  at  home.  He  was  now  a  robust  youth 
and  could  do  a  good  deal  of  heavy  work,  from 
which  his  father  could  draw  some  profit.  But 
the  step-mother,  clearly  the  will-power  of  the 
family,  interfered  in  behalf  of  his  education.  We 
have  to  think  that  the  real  mother,  with  her 
passive  emotional  character,  could  have  hardly 
shielded  him  against  the  opposition.  She  was 
given  him  when  he  was  a  little  child,  before  his 
labor  counted  for  anything.  But  it  was  the  step 
mother  who  bestowed  upon  him  his  teens  for 
study,  really  the  most  fruitful  time  for  acquisition. 

Lincoln  deeply  recognized  the  sterling  character 
of  his  step-mother,  and  knew  her  place  in  the  evolu 
tion  of  his  career.  Of  his  father  he  did  not  and 
could  not  have  a  high  opinion.  Nor  could  any 
great  affection  spring  from  paternal  treatment 
which  rose  to  the  point  of  giving  a  knock-down  to 
the  boy,  if  report  can  be  credited.  So  uncongenial 
a  diversity  in  temperament,  in  talent,  in  aspiration, 
seems  to  have  excited  at  times  in  Lincoln  those 


LINCOLN'S  SCHOOLING.  59 

vague  questionings  in  regard  to  his  origin,  with 
which  he  often  played  as  a  mental  toy.  But  the 
stranger  fact  is  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the 
spiritual  son  of  his  step-mother,  whose  school  was 
far  better  for  him,  and  more  deeply  influential 
than  all  his  other  schooling. 

We  must  also  observe  the  fact  that  his  step 
mother  was  not  only  his  protectress  in  the  home, 
and  exemplar  in  character,  but  directly  his  teacher, 
his  critic,  his  first  sympathetic  audience.  Herein 
again  she  has  left  a  naive  but  very  touching  record: 
"Frequently,"  says  she,  "he  had  no  paper  to  write 
his  pieces  down  on.  Then  he  would  put  them 
with  chalk  on  a  board  or  plank,  sometimes  only 
making  a  few  signs  of  what  he  intended  to  write. 
When  he  got  paper,  he  would  copy  them,  always 
bringing  them  to  me  and  reading  them.  He  would 
ask  my  opinion  of  what  he  had  read"  which  was 
his  own  composition,  and  for  which  he  desired 
some  appreciative  listener  and  judge.  Thus  she 
encouraged  him  to  train  himself  in  the  written 
word,  nursing  his  genius  in  that  lowly  cabin  with 
love  and  recognition.  This  was  altogether  his 
best  school,  opening  in  his  home  when  he  was 
eleven  years  old  and  closing  at  twenty-one.  Thus 
the  supreme  fact  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  youth  was 
his  apprenticeship  to  his  step-mother,  lasting  a 
good  ten  years,  during  the  formative  and  mentally 
acquisitive  time  of  life.  Here  he  began  to  win 
through  practice  that  literary  sense  which  speaks 


60  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

directly  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  in  which 
he  stands  without  a  rival.  For  we  can  now  see 
that  the  words  of  Abraham  Lincoln  are  destined 
to  be  read  and  pored  over  far  more  than  those  of 
any  other  American  writer  by  the  people,  not 
merely  of  his  own  land,  but  of  all  lands.  He  has 
voiced  the  Folk-Soul  at  the  most  critical  turn  of 
its  evolution  hitherto  recorded  in  History.  Ad 
dressing  his  early  words  to  that  responsive  step 
mother  in  that  otherwise  unappreciative  environ 
ment,  and  winning  her  applause,  he  is  getting  ready 
to  speak  to  his  vaster  audience,  that  of  his  Nation, 
and  finally  that  of  the  Ages. 

VII. 

The  Printed   Page. 

Lincoln  is  credited  with  saying  that  "he  had 
read  through  every  book  he  had  ever  heard  of  in 
that  country  for  a  circuit  of  fifty  miles."  This 
innocent  boast,  even  if  exaggerated,  expresses  a 
fact  which  the  biographic  interpreter  of  Lincoln's 
career  must  throw  into  a  strong  and  steady  light. 
It  illustrates  strikingly  his  eagerness  to  get  hold 
of  the  wisdom  of  the  past  stored  in  and  handed 
down  to  him  by  the  Printed  Page.  Many  other 
anecdotes  corroborative  of  the  same  over-mastering 
impulse  are  recorded  concerning  him,  and  set  forth 
his  omnivorous  appetite  for  reading  books. 

Few  youths  have  ever  shown  so  strong  an  innate 


THE  PRINTED  PAGE.  61 

delight  in  devouring  print,  especially  under  such 
adverse  circumstances,  as  did  Lincoln.  Books 
were  his  University  in  which  he  took  a  unique 
course,  truly  universal.  Very  different  is  the 
satiety  which  at  present  is  apt  to  come  upon  the 
boy  struggling  distractedly  through  the  deluge  of 
typography,  which  pours  upon  him  from  every 
direction.  But  Lincoln  had  to  hunt  for  the  book 
he  read,  and  often  he  made  considerable  journeys 
to  borrow  it  for  a  brief  time.  It  was  a  real  treasure 
when  he  obtained  it,  and  a  privilege  to  peruse  its 
contents.  He  came  to  have  a  love  for  the  Printed 
Page,  and  was  drawn  to  it  irresistibly  as  the  source 
of  light  to  his  career,  as  the  very  beacon  of  the 
past  illuminating  his  way  to  the  future. 

He  pursued  his  bent  obstinately  in  spite  of  a  good 
deal  of  jealousy  and  disparagement  manifested  in 
his  own  household.  Said  a  relative,  Dennis  Hanks, 
to  an  interviewer:  " Lincoln  was  lazy,  a  very  lazy 
man.  He  was  always  reading,  scribbling,  cipher 
ing,  writing  poetry  and  the  like,"  which  Dennis 
deemed  rank  idleness.  Always  intellectually  active 
the  youth  was,  in  spite  of  sneers  at  his  laziness 
from  everybody  except  his  step-mother.  Quite  a 
little  course  of  study  he  was  taking,  all  to  himself, 
blazing  his  way  as  he  went  along.  Bodily  activity 
alone  was  appreciated  in  that  community  of 
farmers,  who  knew  muscular  work,  but  not  mental. 

Not  much  oral  instruction  did  he  ever  receive, 
his  knowledge  came  not  through  the  ear  but 


62  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

through  the  sight  absorbing  the  Printed  Page. 
Thus  he  would  become  his  own  teacher  and  drill 
himself  in  what  was  for  him  the  best.  Here 
again  we  may  listen  to  the  report  of  the  observant 
step-mother:  "When  he  came  across  a  passage 
that  struck  him,  he  would  write  it  down  on  boards 
if  he  had  no  paper,  and  keep]it  there  till  he  did  get 
paper.  Then  he  would  re-write  it,  look  at  it, 
repeat  it.  He  had  a  copy-book,  a  kind  of  scrap- 
book,  in  which  he  put  down  all  things  and  thus 
preserved  them  "  for  review,  comparison,  repeti 
tion.  Thus  the  Printed  Page  is  appointed  Abra 
ham  Lincoln's  Professor,  very  capable  indeed, 
being  able  to  impart  to  him  the  best  thoughts  of 
the  best  men  of  all  ages.  Let  us  also  note  the 
educative  value  involved  in  this  process.  Not 
simply  ear-minded,  but  also  eye-minded  he  be 
comes,  and  from  the  immediate  transitory  voice 
of  an  instructor  he  rises  to  the  lasting  word  of  the 
Printed  Page,  which  act  is  both  a  great  training 
in  itself  and  gives  the  chief  means  for  all  other 
training.  Plainly  Lincoln  is  making  his  own 
University  and  is  Head  Tutor  to  himself.  It  is 
well  known  that  many  persons  who  can  read  print, 
find  difficulty  in  getting  its  meaning  till  this  be 
voiced  to  them.  They  are  not  truly  masters  of 
the  Printed  Page,  and  cannot  use  it  fully.  In 
contrast  with  such  persons  stands  Lincoln  who 
seemed  to  have  a  native  lordship  over  the  Printed 
Page,  and  an  inborn  love  of  it,  easily  making 


THE  PRINTED  PAGE.  63 

it  unlock  its  treasures  to  him  already  in  the  back 
woods. 

This  matter  once  understood,  it  can  be  no  sur 
prise  to  learn  that  his  appetite  for  reading  books 
was  insatiable.  Only  thus  could  he  break  out  of 
his  narrow  life  at  Little  Pidgeon  Creek,  and  com 
mune  with  the  great  world  everywhere  and  at  all 
times.  Unanimous  is  the  recorded  opinion  of  all 
who  knew  him  that  he  was  a  genius  limit-trans 
cending,  and  only  through  the  Printed  Page  could 
he  reach  beyond  his  cooped-up  environment.  Let 
us  copy  a  homely  but  very  striking  picture  of  him 
while  engaged  in  this  phase  of  his  career,  originally 
drawn  by  a  fellow-laborer:  "When  Abe  and  I 
returned  to  the  house  from  work,  he  would  go  to 
the  cupboard,  snatch  a  piece  of  corn  bread,  sit 
down,  take  a  book,  cock  up  his  legs  as  high  as  his 
head  and  read.  We  grubbed,  plowed,  mowed  and 
worked  together  bare-footed  in  the  field."  This 
attitude  of  repose  somewhat  modified  remained 
his  favorite  one  for  reading  and  meditation  during 
life.  It  was  the  image  of  concentration,  his  long 
limbs  were  compelled  to  send  their  blood  brain- 
ward,  and  his  body  made  no  demands,  being  fully 
relaxed  into  a  total  lack  of  all  dignity. 

Unceasing  was  his  effort  to  win  the  treasures  of 
the  Printed  Page:  "Whenever  Abe  had  a  chance 
in  the  field  while  at  work  or  at  the  house,  he  would 
stop  and  read".  So  says  one  witness  of  these  early 
days;  another  declares:  "He  lost  no  time  at  home, 


64  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

and  when  he  was  not  at  work  he  was  at  his  books", 
of  which  he  seems  to  have  always  commanded  a 
small  supply.  The  boy  could  not  stop:  "He  kept 
up  his  studies  on  Sunday  and  carried  his  books 
with  him  to  work  so  that  he  might  read  when  he 
rested  from  labor".  Going  home  from  his  task  in 
the  field,  he  would  sit  on  the  rail  fence,  draw  out 
his  book  and  begin  to  read,  not  being  able  to  wait 
till  he  reached  the  house,  or  thinking,  if  he  did, 
that  old  Tom  would  have  a  scene  with  him  about 
book-learning.  In  that  position  he  was  once  ob 
served  by  two  men  passing,  when  one  of  them  ut 
tered  the  prophecy  of  his  future  greatness,  which 
has  been  more  than  verified,  as  he  sat  "on  the  top 
of  an  old-fashioned  stake  and  rider  worm  fence" 
utterly  oblivious  of  their  approach  through  absorp 
tion  in  a  book. 

Old-time  country  people,  however,  deemed  this 
mental  industry  of  Lincoln  to  be  a  makeshift  for 
getting  rid  of  work.  That  was  the  theory  of  the 
father  who,  however,  was  strongly  counteracted  by 
the  opposite  view  of  the  step-mother.  Young  Lin 
coln  was  unfavorably  contrasted  with  his  sister 
Sally:  "She  was  more  industrious  than  Abe",  re 
ports  one  of  their  common  acquaintances.  But 
the  richest  statement  comes  from  a  neighboring 
farmer:  "He  worked  for  me  but  was  always  read 
ing  and  thinking.  I  used  to  get  mad  at  him  for  it. 
I  say  he  was  awfully  lazy.  He  would  laugh  and 
talk,  crack  jokes  and  tell  stories  all  the  time;  didn't 


THE  PRINTED  PAGE.  65 

love  work  half  as  much  as  his  pay".  So  speaks 
through  the  reporter  old  John  Romine,  the  surly 
agriculturist,  in  whose  words  we  still  feel  the  heat 
of  many  a  scolding  and  squabble  through  the  long 
intervening  years.  But  he  probably  never  tackled 
physically  young  Abraham,  an  athlete  whose 
strength  was  bruited  about  the  neighborhood  as 
equal  to  that  of  three  ordinary  men.  There  is  no 
doubt,  too,  that  Lincoln  did  a  fair  day's  task, 
being  able  to  strike  a  heavier  blow  with  a  maul, 
and  make  an  axe  bite  deeper  into  a  tree  than  any 
known  man  of  that  region.  But  the  surly  agricul 
turist,  with  an  eye  to  thrift,  wanted  him  to  do 
more,  and  to  stop  his  "reading  and  thinking" — and 
so  sends  this  amusing  growl  down  time. 

This  intense  longing  to  probe  the  secrets  of  the 
Printed  Page  as  the  very  talisman  of  his  destiny 
may  well  have  begun  decidedly  in  his  tenth  year 
when  he  received  his  second  great  lift  in  educa 
tion  at  the  school  of  Master  Dorsey.  All  this  was 
confirmed  and  intensified  with  Master  Crawford, 
when  he  was  fourteen  years  old  and  more  ready  to 
receive  everything  that  his  teacher  had  to  give. 
He  was  the  best  speller  in  that  country,  and  at  the 
spelling  matches,  whichever  side  chose  him,  was 
deemed  to  have  won  already  without  any  further 
contest.  He  also  learned  to  write  a  good  hand, 
characteristically  clear  and  definite.  Both  his 
spelling  and  his  chirography,  acquired  at  this  time, 

5 


66  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST 

he  retained  to  the  last,  familiar  now  to  millions 
and  destined  to  be  so  to  milliards. 

The  pedagogue  will  not  fail  to  be  interested  in 
the  training  which  comes  from  spelling  as  the 
analysis  of  the  word  into  its  sounds,  each  of  which 
has  its  visible  sign.  The  teacher  with  spelling- 
book  in  hand  voices  the  seen  word  which  the 
speller  transmutes  into  its  elements,  letter  by  let 
ter,  and  syllable  by  syllable.  Lincoln  is  said  to 
have  had  the  habit  of  reading  aloud  to  himself. 
He  wished  to  hear  the  thought  voiced  as  well  as 
to  see  it  printed — to  hear  it  as  well  as  to  eye  it. 
Primordially  man  is  a  listener  rather  than  a  reader. 
Lincoln,  like  many  people,  was  both.  Spelling  is 
the  connective  between  the  spoken  word  and  the 
printed  word,  and  trains  the  mind  to  pass  easily 
from  one  to  the  other.  Lincoln's  mastery  of  the 
Printed  Page  was  furthered  by  his  early  excellence 
in  spelling. 

Another  tendency  in  Lincoln,  and  one  very  im 
portant  for  his  education,  was  that  of  reproducing 
in  writing  whatever  took  hold  of  him  strongly. 
He  made  copious  extracts  in  his  copy-book  and 
repeated  the  passages.  He  carried  with  him  a 
piece  of  chalk  for  writing  and  ciphering  on  any  flat 
surface  he  might  come  upon,  such  as  boards  and 
hewn  logs.  The  cabin  home  was  covered  with  his 
scribblings.  Nor  did  he  stop  with  the  departure  of 
sunlight.  A  favorite  position  in  the  evening  was 
to  lie  on  his  stomach  before  the  fireplace  and  with 


THE  PRINTED  PAGE.  67 

a  piece  of  charcoal  to  cipher  upon  a  broad  wooden 
shovel.  When  dawn  would  begin  to  peep  through 
a  chink  in  his  loft,  he  would  get  up  and  start  to 
reading,  copying,  or  perchance  composing.  These 
attempts  at  composition  should  be  noted,  espe 
cially  as  they  were  voluntary,  and  indicated  his 
spontaneous  bent  toward  a  literary  utterance.  He 
wrote  little  essays,  made  chronicles  upon  local 
events  in  scriptural  style  and  scribbled  doggrels. 
He  imitated  all  forms  of  expression  within  his 
reach :  he  would  thump  the  table  and  preach  a 
sermon  from  a  text  in  the  Bible  after  the  manner 
of  the  preacher;  he  would  make  a  political  speech, 
and  actually  wrote  an  article  on  temperance  which 
was  published  in  a  newspaper.  Notable  is  it  that 
as  a  boy  he  composed  an  essay  on  his  life-long 
theme,  the  Union  and  Constitution,  of  which  a 
local  lawyer,  not  otherwise  famous,  declared: 
"The  world  can't  beat  it",  and  procured  its  pub 
lication. 

Thus  our  young  Abraham  has  beheld  himself 
reproducing  the  marvelous  Printed  Page — not  only 
reading  it  when  made  by  others  but  actually 
making  it  himself.  So  far  did  his  mastery  of  it 
proceed  there  in  the  backwoods,  that  he  began  to 
be  creative  of  it  by  his  own  native  power,  and 
doubtless  to  glimpse  its  place  in  his  training. 


68  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

VIII. 

Folk-Books. 

Having  made  real  to  ourselves  the  youthful  Lin 
coln's  wonderful  mastery  of  the  Printed  Page,  we 
next  inquire  about  what  he  read.  What  were  the 
books  and  their  general  character  which  exerted  a 
formative  power  upon  him  at  this  period?  The 
answer  may  be  given:  chiefly  the  Folk-Books  of  the 
race.  These  nourished  his  growing  spirit,  and  also 
gave  him  a  form  of  expression  for  reaching  the 
Folk-Soul,  wherein  lay  his  supreme  vocation  as 
well  as  his  unique  power. 

Lincoln's  library  was  largely  borrowed.  It 
would  seem  that  he  never  owned  such  a  common 
text-book  as  an  arithmetic;  at  least  his  step 
mother  declared  in  response  to  an  inquirer  that 
she  could  not  recollect  that  he  ever  possessed  one 
in  his  own  right.  But  every  man,  woman  and 
child  in  the  neighborhood  would  loan  a  book  to 
the  kind-hearted,  aspiring  boy  whom  all  loved 
and  admired.  Still  Lincoln  must  at  last  have 
gotten  together  a  few  books  of  his  own.  There  is 
a  story  about  his  becoming  the  owner  of  Weems' 
Life  of  Washington.  He  had  borrowed  it  from  a 
churlish  old  neighbor,  afterward  satirized  as  Blue 
Nose  Crawford,  and  was  reading  it  when  one  night 
a  storm  came  up  and  the  rain  beat  in  through  a 
chink  of  the  Lincoln  cabin,  damaging  the  covers  of 
the  book.  The  owner  put  his  loss  at  seventy-five 


FOLK-BOOKS.  69 

cents,  which  Lincoln,  having  no  money,  had  to 
pay  him  in  work,  being  required  to  pull  fodder 
three  days  for  the  costs.  We  may  suppose  that 
he  then  owned  the  book  (though  our  record  does 
not  expressly  say  so),  and  perused  it  many  times 
with  boyish  delight  in  its  hero.  Those  three  fod 
der-pulling  days  turned  out  the  most  profitable  of 
Lincoln's  youth,  giving  him  the  printed  portraiture 
which  shaped  for  him  his  American  ideal.  This 
book  had  been  adopted  by  the  People  of  that  time 
as  their  Life  of  Washington,  veritably  a  Folk- 
Book,  with  its  commingling  of  fact,  fable,  anec 
dote,  overcanopied  with  providential  guidance  and 
preservation  of  the  Hero.  Already  we  have  alluded 
to  it  as  an  influence  in  Lincoln's  career  (see  Intro 
duction),  who  noticed  it  upon  a  public  occasion. 
Also  we  may  say  that  this  book  helped  to  make 
him  acquainted  with  the  American  Folk-Soul,  of 
which  he  was  then  an  unconscious  atom,  but  of 
which  he  was  to  become  the  guide  and  the  utter 
ance  in  the  sorest  trial  it  ever  yet  has  undergone. 
As  all  Peoples  have  regarded  their  heroes  as  semi- 
divine,  so  Lincoln  took  the  popular  view  of  Wash 
ington,  looking  back  to  him  as  a  kind  of  demi-god. 
And  when  his  own  great  world-historical  task 
dawned  upon  him,  he  could  not  help  coupling  it 
with  that  of  Washington,  which  had  been  so  im 
pressively  set  forth  to  his  youthful  imagination  in 
the  Folk-Book  of  Pastor  Weems.  We  observe  that 
most  of  our  biographers  of  Lincoln  speak  very 


70  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

apologetically  of  this  Folk-Book  and  of  Lincoln's 
devotion  to  it;  but  we  cannot  help  saying  to  them 
and  to  ourself:  Make,  0  scribbler,  your  life  of 
Lincoln  equal  in  influence  to  the  work  of  Weems, 
and,  having  the  Hero,  write  a  new  American  Folk- 
Book,  if  you  can. 

Another  text-book  in  this  School  of  the  People, 
which  he  read  often  and  committed  to  memory, 
apparently  owning  a  copy,  was  dSsop's  Fables.  The 
animal  world  in  the  midst  of  which  the  youth  was 
placed,  both  tame  and  wild  products  of  farm  and 
forest,  was  made  to  convey  lessons  of  homely  wis 
dom  and  morality  to  the  popular  mind.  The  old 
Greek  fabulist  had  the  power  of  making  the  beasts 
of  the  field  and  the  birds  of  the  air  talk  to  one  an 
other  and  to  man,  with  whom  they  were  so  closely 
associated.  ^Esop  also  spoke  to  the  Folk-Soul  of 
his  own  time  and  of  all  time,  and  we  can  see  Lincoln 
listening  to  him  and  catching  his  trick,  his  manner, 
and  appropriating  it  for  coming  use  in  addressing 
that  same  Folk-Soul. 

Here  we  cite  a  striking  instance  of  Lincoln  play 
ing  ^Esop  to  Grant,  who  has  just  been  appointed 
Lieutenant-General,  and  is  not  to  repeat  M'Clellan 
in  command  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac.  The 
President  began  fabling:  "At  one  time  there  was 
a  great  war  among  the  animals,  and  one  side  had 
great  difficulty  in  getting  a  commander  who  had 
sufficient  confidence  in  himself.  Finally  they  found 
a  monkey  by  the  name  of  Jocko,  who  said  that  he 


FOLK-BOOKS.  71 

thought  he  could  command  their  army  if  his  tail 
could  be  made  a  little  longer.  So  they  got  more 
tail  and  spliced  it  on  to  his  caudal  appendage.  He 
looked  at  it  admiringly  and  then  thought  he  ought 
to  have  a  little  more  still.  This  was  added,  and 
again  he  called  for  more.  The  splicing  process  was 
repeated  many  times,  until  they  had  coiled  Jocko's 
tail  all  around  the  room,  filling  all  the  space.  Still 
he  called  for  more  tail,  and,  there  being  no  other 
place  to  coil  it,  they  began  wrapping  it  around  his 
shoulders.  He  continued  calling  for  more,  and  they 
kept  on  winding  the  additional  tail  about  him  until 
its  weight  broke  him  down." 

Grant  saw  the  point,  so  he  declares,  and  left  the 
president  with  the  determination  not  to  play  the 
part  of  tail-encumbered  Jocko.  (The  foregoing 
fable  has  been  declared  to  be  an  adaptation  from 
Orpheus  C.  Kerr.) 

Another  of  Lincoln's  Folk-Books  was  Bunyan's 
Pilgrim's  Progress,  which  opened  to  him  a  new 
literary  form  highly  popular  and  cognate  with  the 
fable,  that  of  the  allegory.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
its  content  also  appealed  to  him  powerfully,  since  it 
reflects  the  conflicts  of  the  inner  life  which  was  so 
much  cultivated  by  Lincoln's  early  Quaker  ances 
try.  He  showed  through  his  whole  career  a  per 
vasive  moral  consciousness,  which,  even  if  native  to 
the  man,  was  nourished  by  reading  this  old  Puritan 
Folk-Book,  truly  a  teacher  of  the  people.  Lincoln 
was  by  nature  a  symbolist  in  the  wide  sense  of  the 


72  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

term,  uttering  himself  in  a  variety  of  symbols — 
metaphor,  anecdote,  story,  fable,  allegory — all  of 
which  he  used  more  or  less  dexterously,  with  an  in 
ner  purpose  or  meaning  in  the  outer  form.  This 
is  what  he  meant  by  requiring  a  nub  (as  he  called  it) 
to  a  story,  which  was  not  to  be  merely  a  running 
narrative,  idealess,  pointless,  nubless.  Bunyan's 
allegory  is  very  transparent,  and  its  charm  is  that 
it  runs  double  so  easily  that  the  humblest  mind 
gets  the  nub  to  it  from  the  start. 

Another  Anglo-Saxon  Folk-Book  of  a  very  dif 
ferent  strain  from  that  of  Bunyan,  fell  into  young 
Lincoln's  hands,  the  well-known  Robinson  Crusoe. 
Here  is  the  story  of  the  adventurous  pioneer,  who 
is  cast  on  a  solitary  island,  and  has  to  draw  out  of 
himself  and  re-make  his  whole  social  and  institu 
tional  world.  To  be  sure  the  hero  brings  it  along 
within  himself,  but  he  has  to  get  it  outside.  In  the 
very  process  of  such  a  life  Lincoln  was  placed  on 
the  frontier  of  Indiana,  to  be  sure  not  wholly  alone. 
Still  he  could  not  help  seeing  Robinson  Crusoe  en 
acted  before  him,  while  he  was  himself  a  partici 
pant.  The  book  made  him  conscious  of  an  import 
ant  phase  of  his  existence  there  in  the  woods,  and 
thus  educated  him  to  know  his  environment  and 
himself  in  it.  Crusoe  is  a  glorification  of  the  self- 
reliant,  self-sufficing  individual,  and  hence  ap 
peals  mightily  to  the  American  backwoodsman  as 
self-helper  and  institution-maker.  Interesting  is 
the  fact  that  some  educators  have  introduced  it 


FOLK-BOOKS.  73 

into  the  schools  of  the  people,  making  it  a  center  or 
core  of  correlation  for  other  branches.  Well, 
Lincoln  had  it  first  in  his  school,  in  which  he  was 
both  the  teacher  and  the  taught. 

In  this  list  of  Folk-Books  accessible  to  young 
Lincoln  we  should  by  no  means  omit  the  Bible 
which  is  in  itself  a  whole  literature  endowed  with 
a  unique  power  over  the  people.  We  know — for 
it  still  exists — that  in  Thomas  Lincoln's  cabin  was 
a  copy  of  this  greatest  of  Folk-Books  performing 
its  peculiar  function  to  the  English  race,  especially 
to  the  hardy  pioneers  of  this  race  in  America,  who 
were  through  it  baptized  and  re-baptized  in  the 
God-consciousness  of  that  old  Semitic  stock. 
Abraham  Lincoln's  own  given-name  was  taken 
from  one  of  its  chief  worthies,  also  a  pioneer,  and 
had  descended  through  a  line  of  ancestral  Lincolns. 
His  grandfather  Abraham  had  two  brothers  called 
Isaac  and  Jacob,  which  hints  the  strong  Hebraiz 
ing  spirit  started  by  the  Reformation  and  continued 
by  the  Puritans  in  Old  and  New  England  whence  it 
migrated  with  the  emigrants  to  the  backwoods. 

There  has  been  no  little  controversy  over  the  re 
ligious  views  of  Lincoln.  It  can  not  be  gainsaid 
that  scriptural  allusions  and  citations  run  through 
his  entire  works.  The  Christian  dogmas  seem  not 
to  have  taken  hold  of  him  so  strongly,  but  the  God- 
consciousness  as  set  forth  in  the  Old  Testament  was 
never  wanting  to  him,  and  its  power  over  him  in 
creased  to  the  end  of  his  life.  It  reaches  its  cul- 


74          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

mination  in  his  last  Inaugural  spoken  a  few  weeks 
before  his  death.  The  strong  Hebrew  tinge  in  this 
document,  and  the  citations  from  scripture  con 
tained  in  it,  carry  us  back  to  his  youth  when  that 
Folk-Book  must  have  been  the  chief  element  of  his 
culture, — lisped  first  at  his  mother's  knee  and  then 
rehearsed  in  his  Indiana  home.  The  main  theme 
of  his  last  Inaugural  is  God  and  God's  justice 
uttered  with  the  rapture  and  rhythm  of  the  old 
Hebrew  prophet:  "Yet  if  God  wills  that  it  (the 
war)  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the 
bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  un 
requited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of 
blood  drawn  with  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another 
drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said:  '  The  judgments 
of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.'  ' 

Thus  Lincoln's  youthful  reading  lay  in  the  line 
of  the  great  Folk-Books  which  have  been  hallowed 
by  the  people  for  ages.  This  was  the  early  litera 
ture  which  trained  his  way  of  thinking  and  expres 
sion,  and  also  stored  his  mind  with  no  small  amount 
of  popular  lore.  We  may  call  it  the  literature  of 
the  Folk-Soul  in  which  Lincoln  so  deeply  partici 
pated,  and  through  which  he  reached  far  back  into 
the  spiritual  unfolding  of  the  race.  For  we  see  on 
this  list  a  Semitic,  a  Greek,  an  Anglo-Saxon,  and 
specially  a  Puritan  Folk-Book — a  kind  of  summa 
tion  of  the  popular  culture  of  the  Occidental  world. 

It  would  seem  that  Lincoln  had  his  living  ex- 


FOLK-BOOKS  75 

emplar  and  instructor  in  the  art  of  story-telling. 
Tradition  has  handed  down  the  name  of  John 
Baldwin,  the  Village  Blacksmith  of  Gentry  ville, 
as  the  champion  story-teller  of  the  settlement. 
Little  Abe  would  "slip  off  to  his  shop  and  sit  and 
listen  to  him  by  the  hour,"  with  a  childish  delight 
in  the  art  which  touched  his  deepest  chord,  and 
which  he  would  then  practice  on  others,  till  finally 
he  began  to  enter  the  lists  with  the  blacksmith 
himself.  From  the  stock  then  laid  up  he  is  said  to 
have  drawn  in  the  Presidential  Mansion,  so  that 
"  statesmen,  plenipotentiaries,  and  famous  com 
manders  have  many  times  made  the  White  House 
ring  with  their  laughter  over  the  quaint  tales  of 
John  Baldwin,  the  blacksmith."  (Lamon.) 

But  it  was  not  Lincoln's  ambition  nor  his  des 
tiny  to  make  a  Folk-Book.  Anecdote,  story,  joke- 
cracking  and  yarn-spinning  were  but  a  means  of 
bringing  a  great  principle  and  a  great  duty  home 
to  the  people,  that  they  fulfil  their  world-historical 
purpose.  Of  course  the  youth  Lincoln  was  uncon 
scious  of  any  such  motive,  as  were  also  the  people 
of  that  time.  Still  it  lay  implicitly  in  the  Folk- 
Soul  of  the  West  already,  as  we  have  seen  in  tracing 
the  secret  impelling  cause  of  their  migration  from 
South  to  North,  from  the  Slave-State  to  the  Free- 
State,  in  which  our  Abraham  Lincoln  profoundly 
participated. 

What,  then,  has  Lincoln  to  say  ultimately  to 
his  people?  He  must  speak  what  lies  deepest  in 


76          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

him,  and  that  is  institutional.  The  American 
State  or  the  Federal  Union  is  getting  ready  for  a 
great  change  in  its  polity;  it  is  under  training  to 
pass  from  its  dualism  of  being  and  producing  two 
antagonistic  kinds  of  States,  slave  and  free,  to  the 
unity  of  being  and  producing  one  kind  only,  and 
that  the  Free  State.  In  this  mighty  institutional 
transition  lurks  the  very  soul  of  Lincoln,  who  is 
destined  to  be  its  supreme  representative  and 
protagonist.  For  such  a  task  he  is  also  to  be  trained 
even  in  these  youthful  days  on  Little  Pidgeon 
Creek,  and  the  strange  fact  comes  to  light  that  a 
book  drops  down  upon  him,  as  it  were,  just  about 
when  he  is  mature  enough  to  begin  to  understand 
its  theme.  This  book  we  may  call  a  Book  of 
Institutions,  by  way  of  contrast  with  the  before- 
mentioned  Folk-Books,  these  being  after  all  but 
an  instrument  of  utterance  for  Lincoln's  institu 
tional  spirit,  which  is  the  deepest  fact  of  him,  of  his 
people,  and  of  his  age.  This  fact  with  its  cor 
responding  Printed  Page,  is  what  must  next  be 
considered. 

IX. 

The  Book  of  Institutions. 

So  now,  in  the  course  of  Lincoln's  youthful 
apprenticeship,  another  book  falls  into  his  hands, 
very  different  from  the  Folk-Books  just  set  forth. 
He  is  to  learn  the  political  institutions  of  his  coun 
try  and  to  master  their  expression,  which  is  not 


THE  BOOK  OF  INSTITUTIONS.  77 

symbolic  but  legal.  The  people  of  the  United  States 
have  to  understand  the  law,  and  in  a  degree  tc  talk 
its  speech,  for  they  are  the  lawmakers  who  are  to 
govern  themselves  through  their  institutions. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  unique  things  of  the  coun 
try.  The  American  Folk-Soul  is  and  has  to  be 
legal-minded,  for  it  must  vote  on  legislation  and 
even  may  have  to  remake  its  Constitution,  which 
it  once  made.  This  legal-mindedness  Lincoln 
must  also  begin  to  acquire  in  his  early  years,  if  he 
is  going  to  participate  fully  in  the  popular  conscious 
ness.  In  order  to  bring  this  new  strain  of  the 
American  Folk-Soul  home  to  himself  through  the 
Printed  Page,  he  borrowed  from  friendly  Mr. 
David  Turnham  of  Gentry vi lie,  a  book  which  prob 
ably  gave  him  his  bent  in  life,  and  started  him 
toward  his  true  vocation.  So  important  is  this 
book  for  marking  an  epochal  turn  in  Lincoln,  that 
we  shall  transcribe  its  title-page  entire,  which  is 
also  a  kind  of  table  of  contents. 

"  The  Revised  Laws  of  Indiana,  adopted  and  en 
acted  by  the  General  Assembly  at  their  eighth 
session.  To  which  are  prefixed  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Indiana, 
and  sundry  other  documents  connected  with  the 
Political  History  of  the  Territory  and  State  of  In 
diana.  Arranged  and  published  by  authority  of 
the  General  Assembly,  Cory  don,  1824."  Besides 
the  documents  mentioned  the  book  contained  the 


78         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

Act  of  Virginia  in  1783  conveying  the  North-West- 
ern  Territory  to  the  United  States,  and  the  Ordi 
nance  of  1787  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  same  Ter 
ritory. 

Rightly  this  may  be  called  an  Institutional  Folk- 
Book  of  the  North- West,  which  every  State  might 
make  and  print,  but  which  no  people  ever  before 
had  or  could  have,  in  the  World's  History.  Lincoln 
in  his  eighteenth  year  gets  it,  starts  to  studying  it 
and  discussing  it  with  intelligent  friends.  He 
learns  the  distinctive  character  of  his  Nation  from 
this  peculiar  Folk-Book,  very  different  from  those 
European  Folk-Books  which  have  been  already 
considered,  and  which  have  certainly  trained  him 
to  popular  utterance  and  have  given  him  many  a 
help  for  attaining  his  supreme  end.  Still  they  are 
not  that  end  nor  do  they  have  it  as  their  content. 

We  have  thus  seen  Lincoln's  preparation  for 
getting  acquainted  with  the  Folk-Soul  and  for 
talking  its  language.  Already  he  has  tested  him 
self  by  little  addresses  to  crowds  with  story,  anec 
dote,  humor;  he  has  likewise  made  some  brief 
stump-speeches,  in  these  days.  A  newspaper 
from  Louisville  was  furnished  to  him  by  a  friend, 
and  he  devoured  that,  which  brought  him  into  di 
rect  connection  with  the  political  questions  of  the 
day.  In  1828  he  was  an  ardent  politician  at  an 
election  of  Andrew  Jackson.  A  history  of  the 
United  States  is  also  set  down  as  one  of  the  books 
of  his  little  library. 


THE  BOOK  OF  INSTITUTIONS.  79 

In  1820  occurred  the  great  struggle  on  the  ques 
tion  of  slavery  going  into  the  territories.  The 
whole  country  was  in  commotion,  the  Union  was 
threatened.  The  agitation  was  specially  strong  in 
the  West,  which  was  most  deeply  concerned.  Lin 
coln,  though  a  boy  of  only  eleven,  must  have  heard 
a  good  deal  of  it,  and  in  his  young  brooding  soul 
have  pondered  the  two  sides.  Certainly  he  then 
became  fully  aware  of  the  great  issue  between  slav 
ery  and  anti-slavery,  which  was  likewise  to  be  the 
great  issue  of  his  life.  The  Missouri  Compromise 
settled  the  excitement  for  many  years,  but  it  broke 
out  again  furiously  during  Lincoln's  mature  age, 
and  gave  him  the  key-note  of  his  career.  But  the 
conflict  between  the  expansion  and  the  restriction 
of  slavery  he  must  have  heard  already  in  1820, 
and  have  obtained  some  dim  premonition  of  what 
it  all  meant.  In  Lincoln's  part  of  Indiana,  the 
South- Western,  near  Kentucky,  there  were  some 
slaves  at  this  time,  (the  census  of  1820  gives  192 
slaves  for  the  whole  State).  Thus  the  question 
was  a  practical  one  which  everybody  discussed  and 
took  sides  upon.  The  Indiana  Supreme  Court  in 
1821  decided  against  slavery  and  ended  the  ques 
tion.  We  can  see  that  Lincoln's  boyhood  was 
passed  in  the  presence  of  much  disputation  about 
the  legal  and  moral  aspects  of  slavery.  Especially 
was  the  spread  of  it  to  new  territory  a  much-mooted 
problem. 

When  some  eight  years  later  Lincoln  got  hold 


80         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  — PART  FIRST. 

of  the  before-mentioned  Revised  Laws  of  Indiana 
with  the  precious  collection  of  national  documents 
therein  contained,  he  was  able  to  take  a  new  and 
deeper  grasp  of  the  great  coming  task  of  his  people 
and  of  himself.  He  was  drinking  at  the  sources. 
Let  us  briefly  summarize  these  documents,  and 
their  main  contents.  (1)  The  Declaration  of 
Independence — the  first  great  assertion  of  national 
ity  on  the  part  of  the  American  People  together 
with  the  grounds  of  separation  from  the  mother 
country;  (2)  The  Constitution  of  the  United 
States — the  organization  of  the  Union,  the  greatest 
political  document  the  world  has  yet  seen;  (3)  The 
Constitution  of  the  State  of  Indiana — the  organ 
ization  of  the  single  State  of  the  Union,  as  de 
rived,  wherein  the  Federal  Constitution  is  seen  to 
be  State-producing;  (4)  The  Ordinance  of  1787,  con 
taining  the  clause  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  North- 
Western  Territory;  ever  memorable  for  its  conse 
quences,  as  weiJ  as  for  the  use  that  Lincoln  made  of 
it  in  his  speeches.  The  same  clause  has  in  it  the 
first  Fugitive  Slave  law,  which  grants  the  right  of 
reclaiming  fugitives  "from  whom  labor  or  service 
is  lawfully  claimed  in  any  one  cf  the  original 
States" — which  has  also  a  great  history  before  it, 
as  well  as  much  to  do  with  Lincoln's*  future*;  (5) 
The  statutes  of  Indiana  or  the  laws  made  by  the 
Legislature  under  the  Constitution  of  the  State — 
in  studying  which  he  will  begin  to-  grow  into  his 
vocation  of  lawyer  and  its  peculiar  terminology. 


THE  BOOK  OF  INSTITUTIONS.  81 

In  that  Book  of  Institutions  was  also  con 
tained  Virginia's  cession  in  1783  of  the  North- 
Western  territories,  which  were  to  be  formed  into 
new  States,  one  being  Indiana.  In  this  act  of 
cession  lay  much — nothing  less  than  that  the 
Union  is  to  be  State-producing.  The  Constitution 
was  not  yet  in  existence,  and  the  Federal  Union 
was  not  yet  formed;  still  this  deepest  spirit  of  it 
was  at  work,  being  chiefly  derived  from  Virginia, 
who,  however,  transfers  her  State-producing  power 
to  the  General  Government,  then  the  Confedera 
tion.  Lincoln  had  personally  the  same  derivation, 
and  had  also  its  political  instinct  which  made  him 
completely  one  and  harmonious  with  the  derived 
Free-States  of  the  North-West. 

It  has  been  transmitted  by  the  testimony  of 
several  people  that  Lincoln  read  this  new  Institu 
tional  Folk-Book  with  great  zest  and  industry, 
and  was  in  the  habit  of  repeating  and  explaining  its 
contents.  It  must  have  taken  him  a  good  while  to 
master  it,  for  it  was  clothed  in  wholly  different 
speech  from  the  other  Folk-Books  which  he  knew. 
He  had  to  master  its  legal  nomenclature,  and 
doubtless  put  many  a  question  about  it  to  its 
owner,  Mr.  David  Turnham  of  Gentry ville.  The 
hardest  book  he  had  ever  read,  but  he  persists,  for 
that  is  one  of  his  earliest  and  strongest  traits. 
"When  a  mere  child,  I  used  to  get  irritated,"  says 
he,  "when  anybody  talked  to  me  in  a  way  I  could 
not  understand.  I  do  not  think  I  ever  got  angry 


82          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

at  anything  else  in  my  life."  He  would  chafe  in 
wrath  at  the  limit  of  ignorance,  and  proceed  to 
surmount  it  like  the  stormer  of  a  fortress.  We  may 
well  suppose  that  this  new  book  called  forth  many 
a  fit  of  noble  indignation.  Mighty  was  the  provo 
cation  of  what  he  did  not  know,  and  the  seemingly 
impossible  charmed  and  enraged  him,  the  limit- 
transcending  youth. 

It  is  manifest  that  Lincoln  was  led  by  this  law- 
book  into  a  new  world.  He  passed  from  the  fable, 
parable,  allegory,  the  realm  of  poetry  and  the  sym 
bol,  into  the  dry  abstractions  of  the  law;  he  was 
appropriating  the  garment  of  Justice  whose  lan 
guage  his  task  was  to  learn.  Doubtless  he  felt  or 
soon  began  to  feel  the  life  beneath  all  these  colorless 
forms — a  training  in  pure  intelligence — though 
plumped  down  into  it  seemingly  by  chance,  all  of 
a  sudden.  It  gave  direction  to  his  life,  to  his  career, 
not  immediately  but  after  some  years.  Already 
at  that  time  he  expressed  to  a  lawyer  from  whom 
he  borrowed  legal  works  to  read  at  home,  a  desire 
to  study  law,  but  said  that  his  parents  were  so 
poor  that  they  must  have  the  fruits  of  his  labor. 
This  early  aspiration  will  be  fulfilled  when  his  dis 
cipline  for  such  a  task  is  completed. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  Lincoln  during  this 
period  begins  to  get  a  glimpse  of  what  he  is  to  be  at 
some  time  in  the  future.  Already  he  makes 
political  speeches  to  the  boys.  He  wrote  a  compo 
sition  on  the  American  Government,  "  calling  at- 


THE  BOOK  OF  INSTITUTIONS.  83 

tention  to  the  necessity  of  preserving  the  Union  and 
perpetuating  the  Constitution,"  a  strange  early 
prelude  of  his  latest  deed.  He  attended  lawsuits 
before  the  local  justice-of-the-peace,  and  often 
walked  to  the  county-seat  to  see  the  larger  trials 
in  the  court-room,  and  to  hear  the  lawyer  ad 
dress  with  eloquence  the  gentlemen  of  the  jury. 
So  he  beholds  what  he  is  to  be  hereafter,  and  pre- 
enacts  his  own  vocation  in  a  small  way. 

Out  of  the  Institutional  Folk-Book  he  could  and 
probably  did  acquire  a  complete  view  of  the  system 
of  the  American  government,  which  is  there  given 
in  original  documents.  How  the  Union  works, 
how  the  Single-State  works,  its  relation  to  and 
origin  from  the  Union,  as  well  as  its  own  sphere  of 
government,  may  be  drawn  from  the  compilation. 
The  youth  gets  acquainted  with  the  political  insti 
tutions  of  his  country  in  the  original  forms  which 
create  them  and  keep  them  going,  of  course  through 
the  people.  Already  he  has  had  some  experience 
of  them,  he  knows  of  elections,  stump-speaking  and 
of  laws.  In  1828  when  he  was  nineteen  years  old, 
there  was  a  Presidential  campaign  and  much  dis 
cussion,  in  which  constitutional  questions  were 
handled.  Thus  Lincoln  could  see  those  bare  ideal 
forms  of  law  take  on  life  and  action,  exemplifying 
what  he  had  learned. 

Moreover  he  sees  by  the  campaign  and  its 
speeches  that  it  is  just  these  abstract  principles 
which  must  be  explained  to  the  People,  who  cannot 


84          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST, 

so  readily  grasp  such  intricate  legal  formulas. 
Here  comes-in  the  use  of  what  he  has  elsewhere 
learned — anecdote,  fable,  parable,  humorous  illus 
tration.  The  institutional  world  must  be  brought 
home  to  the  Folk-Soul  that  the  latter  perpetually 
recreate  and  keep  alive  and  active  the  former,  and 
thus  preserve  freedom.  The  People  must  indeed  be 
governed,  but  that  government  must  be  its  own 
through  Law  and  Constitution,  both  of  which  it 
ultimately  makes.  Now  Lincoln  was  in  every 
fibre  of  his  being  an  institutional  man,  which  trait 
may  well  have  started  to  grow  into  his  character 
consciously  with  the  study  of  the  foregoing  Book 
of  Institutions. 

The  early  germinal  Lincoln  has  been  well  out 
lined  by  one  of  his  boyish  comrades:  "When  he 
(Lincoln)  appeared  in  company,  the  boys  would 
cluster  around  him  to  hear  him  talk.  Lincoln  was 
figurative  in  his  speech,  talks  and  conversation. 
He  argued  much  from  analogy  and  explained 
things  hard  for  us  to  understand  by  stories,  tales, 
figures.  He  would  almost  always  point  his  lesson 
or  idea  by  some  story  that  was  plain  and  near 
us,  that  we  might  instantly  see  the  force  and 
bearing  of  what  he  said."  Thus  we  behold  Lincoln 
as  a  boy  explaining  the  difficult  idea  which  he  had 
gained,  to  his  little  group  of  people,  truly  the 
embryo  of  the  great  and  greatest  Lincoln  when  he 
reached  the  height  of  interpreting  and  thereby 
mediating  the  World-Spirit  with  the  Folk-Soul. 


THE  BOOK  OF  INSTITUTIONS.  85 

Of  this  supreme  function  of  his  we  shall  have  much 
to  say  hereafter;  at  present  we  are  to  watch  his 
preparation.  In  explaining  dry  points  of  law  to 
his  comrades,  he  was  on  the  way  to  address  the 
gentlemen  of  the  jury,  over  whom  his  power  in  a 
good  cause  became  irresistible.  Still  further,  he 
had  to  make  clear  to  the  greatest  of  all  juries,  the 
people,  the  nature  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and 
to  win  a  favorable  judgment — wherein  he  had  a 
unique  success. 

Lincoln  has  corroborated  this  character  of  him 
self  in  a  reminiscence  of  his  boyhood.  The  mighty 
impulse  we  see  driving  him ;  he  must  know  and  then 
be  able  to  tell  what  he  knows — two  very  different 
things  by  the  way,  and  often  wholly  disjoined. 
He  declares  that  "I  could  not  sleep,  when  I  got 
on  hunt  for  an  idea,  until  I  had  caught  it,"  that  is, 
until  he  had  made  it  his  own  in  knowledge. 
But  that  is  not  all:  "When  I  thought  I  had  got  it 
I  was  not  satisfied  until  I  had  repeated  it  over  and 
over," — this  repetition  is  noteworthy,  being  pro 
foundly  educational.  And  still  further,  his  dis 
satisfaction  continued  "until  I  had  put  it  in  lan 
guage  plain  enough  for  any  boy  I  knew  to  compre 
hend."  He  must  impart  what  he  has  won  by 
thought,  bringing  it  down  to  the  level  of  his  audi 
ence.  Moreover  "this  was  a  kind  of  passion  with 
me,"  as  a  boy  "and  it  has  stuck  by  me"  as  a 
man,  "for  I  am  never  easy  now  when  I  am  hand 
ling  a  thought  till  I  have  bounded  it"  on  all  sides, 


86          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

thus  making  it  definite  and  clear  not  only  to  my 
self,  but  also  to  my  audience. 

Ardently,  passionately,  Lincoln  we  behold  in  his 
youth  educating  himself  for  his  supreme  future 
vocation.  In  this  self-education  we  should  note 
the  three  things  upon  which  he  puts  stress:  Ac 
quisition  of  the  idea,  its  expression,  and  then  its 
impartation.  He  is  not  simply  to  get  and  form 
ulate  it  for  himself,  but  he  is  specially  to  study 
how  he  can  convey  it  to  others,  in  general  to  the 
people. 

Thus  young  Lincoln  already  at  Gentryville 
begins  to  be  dipped  into  the  deepest  spiritual  cur 
rent  of  his  coming  life  through  this  Book  of  Insti 
tutions.  He  starts  to  learn  "the  What"  of  his 
message,  and  even  of  his  destiny ;  we  may  conceive 
that  "the  How"  he  is  likewise  appropriating 
through  the  popular  Folk-Books.  But,  as  before 
stated,  it  is  not  his  call  to  produce  a  new  Folk- 
Book,  but  to  employ  the  old  ones  for  his  and  their 
supreme  institutional  purpose,  which  is  really 
what  created  them  far  back  in  the  ages  ever  toil 
ing  to  realize  and  to  express  some  idea.  So  Lincoln 
uses  them  or  their  literary  art  to  express  his  idea 
and  that  of  his  age  to  the  people  in  their  own  native 
soul-form  and  dialect. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  Lincoln  is  taking  an  exten 
sive  and  profound  course  of  instruction  in  that  best 
of  all  American  schools — the  High  School  of  the 
People.  What  he  is  learning  there,  we  have  sought 


ANOTHER  MIGRATION.  87 

to  bring  to  the  surface,  till  we  see  the  general  sweep 
of  the  curriculum,  even  if  many  details  lie  buried 
in  oblivion.  A  unique  character  he  has  already 
shown  under  his  circumstances.  All  the  boys  of 
Gentry ville,  of  Indiana,  and  of  the  entire  West 
had  the  same  opportunity  to  go  to  school  to  the 
Folk-Soul,  and  to  receive  her  deepest  lessons.  But 
Lincoln  was  the  single  youth  who  saw  and  seized 
fully  the  chance — that  is  just  his  mystery,  his 
genius.  Born  of  the  humblest  parentage,  reared  in 
obscurity  and  poverty,  why  just  he?  The  same 
question  comes  up  concerning  every  Great  Man 
who  stands  at  the  turning-point  of  an  epoch,  and 
changes,  or  seems  to  change,  the  course  of  History. 
Having  thus  noticed  Lincoln's  High  School  and 
the  main  text-books  used  by  him  in  its  training,  we 
are  brought  to  a  fresh  transition  in  his  life ;  we  may 
deem  it  a  change  of  schools  from  Indiana  to 
Illinois — he  having  still  to  serve  his  Apprenticeship 
to  the  Folk-Soul,  though  in  a  wholly  new  way  and 
with  new  results. 

X. 

Another   Migration. 

"Up  and  be  off,  farther  westward!"  So  we  may 
conceive  the  old  Aryan  ancestor  to  have  said  count 
less  generations  agone  somewhere  in  the  Asiatic 
Highland  ere  he  started  on  his  long  Occidental 
journey  round  the  globe,  not  yet  accomplished  by 
his  descendants  who  have  been  repeating  his  act 


88         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

ever  since.  One  of  these  descendants,  Thomas 
Lincoln,  feels  this  primeval  migratory  instinct  of 
his  race  and  one  day  resolves  to  quit  Indiana 
and  move  toward  the  Mississippi.  Various  grounds 
of  dissatisfaction  have  been  given  for  this  change 
of  abode,  which  grounds  are  to  be  allowed  their  due 
weight;  but  the  deepest  ground  was  that  roving 
Tom  Lincoln  felt  that  he  had  already  been  too  long 
confined  to  one  spot  and  must  move  on  again,  this 
time  to  another  Free-State,  Illinois. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  this  removal  was  North 
westward,  passing  still  further  from  a  Slave-State, 
and  apparently  following  the  instinct  of  the  main 
American  migration  of  the  time.  The  center  of 
population  was  moving  Northward  from  its  former 
Southern  sweep,  and  also  Westward  from  the 
Old  Thirteen  of  the  Atlantic  coast.  Our  Abraham 
Lincoln,  having  just  attained  his  majority  is  to  go 
through  the  ancestral  experience  of  his  family, 
which  has  been  on  the  wing  across  the  continent, 
though  with  numerous  deflections,  ever  since  fore 
father  Samuel  Lincoln  set  out  from  Norwich, 
England,  quite  two  centuries  before  this  last  de 
parture.  And  it  may  be  added  that  this  migra 
tory  line  of  the  Lincolns  is  but  a  single  strand  of  a 
vast  human  flight  in  the  same  general  direction, 
whereof  something  has  been  already  said.  Young 
Lincoln,  therefore,  becomes  an  unconscious  par 
ticipant  in  a  far-reaching  racial  movement  through 
his  present  experience. 


ANOTHER  MIGRATION.  89 

Fourteen  years  the  family  of  Thomas  Lincoln 
had  resided  in  Indiana  under  pinched  conditions. 
The  children  had  grown  up,  there  seemed  small 
prospect  for  them  in  that  part  of  the  country,  whose 
soil  turned  out  scanty  and  infertile,  and  whose 
climate  was  unhealthy.  The  conclusion  was  reached 
that  there  must  be  a  going  forth  to  a  richer  land, 
of  which  they  had  heard  in  Illinois  through  a  rela 
tive  who  lived  in  the  valley  of  the  Sangamon.  A 
cedar  which  is  said  to  be  still  standing  on  the  site 
of  Lincoln's  home,  was  planted  at  his  departure  in 
his  honor  by  his  old  friends.  Once  afterward,  in 
the  campaign  of  1844,  he  revisited  it,  hunted  up  all 
the  old  spots  of  sacred  memory,  and  even  broke  out 
into  verse — which  was  a  habit  of  his  in  his  early 
days. 

So  it  befalls  that  in  March,  1830,  the  Lincoln 
family  starts  through  the  spring  mud  for  its  new 
destination,  in  big  movers'  wagons  with  ox  teams. 
Thirteen  persons  compose  the  company.  It  is 
said  that  Lincoln  invested  his  cash — thirty  dol 
lars — in  small  merchandise  which  he  peddled  along 
the  road,  doubling  his  investment.  So  not  quite 
penniless  could  he  have  been  when  he  reached 
the  Sangamon,  having  some  sixty  dollars.  Let 
the  fact  be  duly  recorded,  since  Lincoln  in  after 
life  had  the  name  of  being  unthrifty  and  careless 
as  regards  money.  It  seems  that  the  movers  passed 
through  old  Vincennes,  where  the  young  inquisitive 
fellow  for  the  first  time  saw  a  printing-press.  Ten 


90          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

miles  west  of  the  town  of  Decatur  the  company 
halted  and  prepared  the  new  home,  a  log  cabin, 
and  put  in  their  first  crop.  To  fence  the  ground 
Lincoln  assisted  in  making  some  rails,  which  after 
ward  became  famous  and  gave  him  the  title  of  Rail- 
Splitter. 

And  now  let  us  call  up  the  central  figure  of  this 
migrating  group.  A  tall  raw-boned  youth  is  driv 
ing  a  yoke  of  oxen  which  toils  laboriously  through 
the  muddy  roads  of  the  Illinois  prairie  and  traverses 
the  high  waters  of  swollen  streams,  to  the  tune  of 
gee-haw.  And  when  he  reaches  the  cabin  of  a 
frontiersman,  he  stops  and  displays  his  articles  for 
sale,  saying:  You  ought  to  have  a  button  for 
your  pantaloons  instead  of  that  thorn  stuck  through 
your  suspenders;  aye,  you  have  no  needle  and 
thread  to  sew  the  button  on,  here  they  are;  upon 
this  table  spread  out  for  us  so  hospitably,  I  observe 
a  lack  of  knives  and  forks — I  have  some  good  ones, 
cheap.  So  he  must  have  chaffered  along  the  way 
in  order  to  gain  his  hundred  per  cent  out  of  his 
money.  But  when  night  comes  on,  and  the  com 
pany  is  gathered  round  the  blazing  hearth  of  some 
farm-house  together  with  its  inmates,  then  the 
Artesian  well  of  stories,  jokes,  humor  would  begin 
to  bubble,  spout  and  play  out  of  the  mouth  of  the 
long-legged  ox-driver,  and  last  till  bed-time,  to  the 
unforgettable  delight  of  that  household,  some  of 
whom  thirty  years  later  might  remember  their 


ANOTHER  MIGRATION.  91 

visitor  when  he  was  chosen  President  of  the  United 
States,  toward  which  goal  he  is  now  marching. 

After  a  journey  of  a  fortnight,  the  Lincolns 
reach  safely  their  destination,  where  soon  our 
Abraham,  being  of  age  and  having  done  his  duty  to 
his  parents  separates  from  the  family,  and  starts 
upon  a  new  stage  of  his  career  which  is  to  be  set 
forth  in  a  new  chapter. 


CHAPTER  SECOND. 

Drifting. 

We  now  come  to  a  period  in  Lincoln's  life,  which 
shows  him  cutting  loose  from  the  anchor  of  his 
parental  home  and  grappling  in  multitudinous 
ways  with  his  new  environing  world.  To  him 
may  be  applied  his  own  picturesque  metaphor 
drawn  from  his  river  experience:  "I  am  a  piece 
of  floating  driftwood."  This  period  embraces  six 
or  seven  years,  the  better  part  of  his  twenties,  say 
from  1830  to  1836-7.  He  was  dissatisfied  with  his 
former  life  and  with  the  outlook  which  his  father's 
family  gave  him.  From  that  he  must  separate  at 
all  hazards,  if  he  intends  to  be  anything.  The 
parting,  especially  from  his  step-mother,  was  pain 
ful;  in  fact  he  hung  around  her  neighborhood  for 
nearly  a  year  after  he  had  declared  his  indepen 
dence.  His  material  outfit  seems  to  have  been 
the  rude  suit  of  clothes  on  his  body  and  this  was  in 
such  a  condition  that  it  had  to  be  renewed  at  once. 
Accordingly  we  hear  that  one  of  the  first  labors 
of  the  free  man  was  to  earn  a  pair  of  pantaloons 
to  be  made  of  butternut  jeans,  for  every  yard  of 
which  he  had  to  split  four  hundred  rails.  So  we 
can  imagine  herculean  Abraham  Lincoln  with 
axe  biting  deeper  into  the  trees  of  the  forest  and 
with  maul  coming  down  upon  the  wedge  in 
(92) 


CHAPTER  SECOND  —  DRIFTING.  93 

huger  whirls  and  heavier  thuds  than  ever  be 
fore,  being  propelled  by  the  new  necessity  as  well 
as  by  the  new  consciousness  of  freedom  which  tells 
him  that  henceforth  he  is  his  own  man. 

Such  is  the  record,  which  doubtless  gives  us  a 
glimpse  of  the  rail-splitter  Lincoln  at  this  time. 
Still  we  cannot  well  conceive  of  him  as  utterly 
moneyless,  for  what  has  become  of  those  sixty 
dollars,  half  of  which  he  made  by  peddling  small 
merchandise  on  the  way  from  Indiana?  Hardly 
has  he  let  it  all  slip  through  his  fingers,  even  if  he 
has  been  generous  to  his  parents,  helping  them  to 
make  a  fresh  start  in  their  Illinois  home. 

Here  then  begins  a  new  (the  second)  stage  of 
what  we  have  called  Lincoln's  Apprenticeship,  in 
which  he  is  indentured  to  the  world,  or  more  par 
ticularly  to  the  Folk-Soul  as  it  manifested  itself 
among  the  pioneers  of  Illinois.  Already  he  had 
thought  of  breaking  loose  from  the  narrowness  of 
his  father's  cabin  and  life  in  Indiana,  when  he  was 
nineteen  years  old.  But  a  friend  whom  he  con 
sulted  advised  the  contrary,  and  exhorted  him  to 
stay  with  his  parents,  as  duty  demanded,  till  he  had 
attained  his  majority.  Now,  however,  he  is  twenty- 
one,  his  service  is  finished  and  he  feels  not  only  the 
right  but  the  necessity  of  setting  forth  upon  a  new 
career,  which  is  his  own,  and  which  brings  him  out 
as  a  distinct,  separate,  self-sufficing  individual. 

Separation,  then,  he  is  making  from  the  first 
anchorage  of  life,  the  Family,  in  which  he  has  been 


94  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

reared.  This  act  determines  the  character  of  the 
whole  present  period :  hence  we  may  call  it  separa 
tive.  Having  quit  the  stability  of  one  kind  of 
life,  he  cannot  acquire  at  once  the  stability  of  an 
other  kind.  He  tries  his  hand  at  many  sorts  of 
occupations,  he  becomes  a  Jack-at-all-trades, 
seeking  to  find  his  center,  and  groping  after  his 
true  vocation.  He  drifts  down  the  little  stream 
of  life  to  which  he  has  come  with  many  a  struggle 
and  gyration,  truly  a  "  piece  of  floating  driftwood  " 
in  the  turbid  waters  of  his  own  Sangamon  at  high 
flood,  as  they  whirl  him  on  to  the  Illinois,  to  the 
Mississippi,  to  the  Ocean,  which  he  is  destined  to 
reach  through  a  tortuous  channel  full  of  picturesque 
surprises. 

And  yet  with  this  outer  fluctuation  and  ever- 
renewed  unsettling,  Lincoln  clings  with  dogged 
pertinacity  to  the  inner  thread  of  his  destiny, 
which  we  have  already  seen  spinning.  He  still 
continued  to  read  with  a  world-consuming  thirst 
all  the  books  he  could  borrow  as  well  as  those  which 
he  had  brought  along.  He  practiced  public  speak 
ing  with  the  trees  of  the  forest  as  his  auditors, 
among  whom  also  stood  his  fellow  rail-splitter, 
John  Hanks.  The  latter  tells  how  a  candidate 
came  into  their  locality  and  made  a  speech.  "It 
was  a  bad  one,"  declares  our  voucher,  having 
become  a  critic  of  speech-making  as  well  as  of  rail- 
splitting,  "and  I  said  Abe  could  beat  it.  I  turned 
down  a  box  and  Abe  made  his  speech,  his  subject 


CHAPTER  SECOND  —  DRIFTING.  95 

being  the  Navigation  of  the  Sangamon  River." 
The  result  was  "Abe  beat  him  to  death"  on  that 
burning  topic,  "The  Navigation  of  the  Sangamon 
River/'  the  most  important  political  question  of 
the  age  to  the  settlers  living  along  its  shores.  Nor 
must  we  forget  to  note  that  the  same  John  Hanks, 
some  thirty  years  later,  brought  two  of  these  rails 
into  the  Convention  at  Decatur  which  put  Abraham 
Lincoln  directly  into  the  Presidential  race.  Of 
all  the  rails  ever  split,  they  are  most  worthy  of 
being  named  world-historical. 

Amid  the  many  goings  and  comings  of  Lincoln 
during  this  period,  there  is  one  spot  about  which 
he  hovers :  the  village  of  New  Salem  wooing  if  not 
wedding  the  Sangamon.  This  village  had  its  own 
peculiar  life,  which  was  very  brief,  but  typical 
of  much  in  the  West.  It  lasted  only  about  a  decade 
of  years,  but  Lincoln  has  given  it  a  fadeless,  rosy- 
cheeked  immortality.  The  Sangamon  river  also 
flows  incessantly  through  this  period  of  Lincoln's 
life;  the  stream  seems  to  have  wrought  a  charm 
upon  him,  he  gets  to  believing  in  its  great  destiny  as 
if  coupled  with  his  own.  If  we  could  transport  our 
selves  back  into  the  Greek  mythical  world,  we  might 
conceive  the  youth  Abraham  Lincoln  in  love  with 
the  fair  river-nymph,  Sangamona,  yellow-tressed 
like  the  Greek  goddess,  whom  he  pursued  for  years 
with  her  flowing  locks.  But  she  always  ran  through 
his  grasp,  till  at  last  she  fleeted  out  of  his  view 
forever.  At  present  a  navigable  Sangamon  seems 


96  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

some  far-off  fabulous  creature,  interesting  chiefly 
because  she  had  the  power  of  throwing  a  spell  of 
blinding  fascination  for  years  over  Lincoln,  and 
of  being  the  chief  instrument  of  sending  him  to  his 
first  Legislature  and  thus  starting  him  on  his 
political  career.  But  he  saw  his  river-nymph 
dwindle  away  to  a  ghost,  and  with  her  evanishment 
went  hand  in  hand  her  own  village,  New  Salem. 
Thereupon  Lincoln  has  to  quit  his  shadowy  quest 
and  give  up  both — wherewith  this  period  of  his 
biography  comes  to  an  end. 

Lincoln  is,  then,  serving  a  part  of  his  Ap 
prenticeship  at  New  Salem,  an  important,  even  if 
a  wayward  and  scattered  part  in  appearance. 
A  new  phase  of  the  American  Folk-Soul  he  gets 
acquainted  with  here,  and  takes  many  a  lesson  of 
it  needful  for  his  future  task.  He  passes  from  the 
isolated  farm  house  to  the  community,  which 
gives  him  a  higher  degree  of  human  association. 
On  the  one  hand  he,  having  separated  from  the 
united  or  more  concentrated  life  of  the  Family, 
is  thrown  back  upon  his  individuality  pure  and 
simple,  which  finds  its  unity  within,  and  thence 
combines  anew  with  his  fellow-man.  It  is  thus  a 
kind  of  fresh  birth  into  that  Folk-Soul  which  it  is 
his  first  function  to  know  through  and  through, 
in  all  its  moods  and  depths,  in  its  strong  as  well  as  in 
its  weak  traits,  what  it  can  be  brought  to  do  and 
what  it  refuses  to  do.  For  Lincoln  has  first  to 
fathom  it,  and  to  sound  its  deepest  aspiration  and 


CHAPTER  SECOND —  DRIFTING.  97 

power,  then  he  is  to  instil  into  it  its  great  world- 
historical  duty  which  also  he  has  to  start  to  learn 
in  this  Apprenticeship  of  his. 

New  Salem  recalls  the  Homeric  village  located 
on  the  frontier  of  European  civilization  in  time 
and  place,  and  pictured  eternally  in  the  Odyssey, 
with  its  singing  story-teller,  with  its  kingly  man 
and  chieftain  in  war  and  in  games,  with  its  public 
speakers  and  its  fair  women,  above  all,  with  its 
supereminent  hero.  So  New  Salem  is  a  village 
on  the  frontier  of  American  civilization,  having  a 
kind  of  epical  idyllic  hero,  our  Lincoln,  who  repre 
sents  quite  all  its  lordlier  phases  as  athlete,  myth- 
maker,  captain  in  war  against  the  barbarians,  and 
law-maker  for  the  people.  A  little  idyllic  epos, 
therefore,  spins  itself  out  along  this  entire  New 
Salem  period  of  Lincoln,  interwoven  with  a  deeply 
colored  love-tale,  whose  tragic  outcome  seems  to 
forebode  that  of  the  town,  if  not  that  of  the  hero 
himself. 

It  is  curious  how  completely  this  unfamed  por 
tion  of  Lincoln's  life  has  come  down  to  us.  It 
impressed  itself  strongly  upon  the  memories  of  the 
villagers,  who  have  told  it  to  numerous  biographic 
explorers  with  many  a  little  variation  attuned  to 
the  one  key-note  of  heroizing  their  sole  genius.  In 
the  small  community,  young  Lincoln  stands  forth 
strongly  individualized;  indeed  we  deem  this  to  be 
just  that  time  when  he  was  winning  his  individual 
ity.  He  is  not  here  lost  in  the  vast  crowd  of  a 
.  7 


98  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

great  city,  but  is  a  kind  of  dominant  figure,  known 
and  recognized  by  every  person  in  the  place,  which 
is  the  bridge  for  the  transition  from  his  rural  and 
domestic  to  his  communal  and  political  life. 

Deep  is  the  correspondence  in  character  during 
this  period  between  Lincoln  and  New  Salem,  be 
tween  the  village  and  its  hero.  Both  are  waifs, 
riding  buoyantly  on  the  stream  of  Time  for  a  few 
years,  and  linked  together  by  a  common  sympathy 
and  bent  of  nature.  Both  are  "  pieces  of  floating 
driftwood/'  on  the  devious  Sangamon  till  the 
village  begins  to  sink  out  of  sight  when  Lincoln, 
having  served  his  time,  dexterously  jumps  off, 
and  passes  to  the  new  and  rising  town  of  that  region. 
He  is  compelled  to  give  up  New  Salem  and  his 
water-nymph  Sangamona,  who  has  turned  out  a 
delusive,  insubstantial  shadow.  With  this  trans 
ition  to  Springfield  the  New  Salem  idyl  and  New 
Salem  itself  draw  to  a  close. 

Lincoln  when  in  the  Presidential  chair  once  said 
that  he  loved  to  think  back  upon  his  New  Salem 
period.  It  was  indeed  his  idyllic  time  of  life, 
rainbowed  with  hope  and  poetry,  yet  shot  through 
and  through  with  dark  clouds  of  failings  and  fail 
ures  ending  in  downright  tragedy.  For  New  Salem 
was  blighted  in  the  very  hey-day  of  its  youthful 
bloom,  and  Lincoln's  first  and  strongest  passion 
after  a  time  of  happy  inflorescence,  was  smitten 
by  fate  like  New  Salem  itself,  and  wound  up  in  a 
crushing  tragedy,  a  real  tragedy  of  love,  which 


DENTON  OFFUT.  99 

deepened  the  melancholy  lines  already  stamped 
upon  his  features  and  his  soul.  Still  his  limit- 
transcending  genius  whispered  to  him  its  behest 
and  he  rose  up  transfigured  from  the  tragic  blow  to 
a  new  career. 

I. 

Denton  Offut. 

Lincoln  is  still  hovering  about  the  parental 
neighborhood,  not  exactly  at  home,  nor  quite 
away  from  home,  being  unable  as  yet  to  have  the 
umbilical  cord  severed  which  ties  him  so  strongly 
to  his  Family.  But  that  is  what  must  be  done 
and  done  at  once,  say  the  Powers  who  preside  over 
his  destiny,  dictating  not  only  the  one  physical 
birth  of  the  man  but  directing  every  new  turn  in 
his  spiritual  genesis. 

Accordingly  the  person  has  appeared  just  at  the 
appointed  time  who  is  to  perform  for  Lincoln  an 
act  of  liberation,  giving  him  the  opportunity  to 
move  forward  a  considerable  curve  in  his  orbit. 
The  name  of  this  person  is  Denton  Offut,  the  West 
ern  adventurer  taking  the  shape  of  a  business  man. 
He  believed  primarily  in  the  Sangamon  river  and 
its  future  importance,  extending  his  operations 
along  it  for  many  miles,  as  if  he  owned  it.  A  jolly 
fellow  with  enormous  quantities  of  brag  at  his  dis 
posal,  particularly  when  the  man  became  fluid  by 
a  sufficient  admixture  of  strong  drink;  he  would 
turn  loose  his  tongue  and  his  imagination  at  the 


100         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

world-embracing  outlook  of  the  Sangamon.  This 
was  the  man  who  put  his  spell  upon  Lincoln  for  a 
couple  of  years.  John  Hanks,  whom  we  have 
already  seen  as  Lincoln's  fellow  rail-splitter,  brought 
him  one  day  to  Offut  and  introduced  him.  Offut's 
scheme  was  to  hire  these  men  to  go  to  New  Orleans 
with  a  boat-load  of  stock  and  provisions,  thus 
connecting  the  Sangamon  with  the  rest  of  the  globe. 
The  bargain  was  struck,  brief  preparation  was 
made  by  the  twain,  fare-well  was  said  to  all 
concerned,  when  they  sprang  into  a  canoe  not  far 
from  their  cabin  doors,  and  floated  down  stream 
to  Jamestown,  seemingly  the  port  of  Springfield. 
To  the  latter  they  had  to  go  by  land  in  order  to 
meet  Offut. 

After  some  search  they  found  him  at  the  town 
tavern  called  the  Buckhorn,  where  he  had  a  good 
opportunity  to  loosen  his  tongue  and  to  let  it  pour 
out  its  treasures  before  congenial  listeners.  This 
was  in  March  1831.  Springfield  was  not  yet  the 
capital  of  the  State,  but  hardly  more  than  a  fron 
tier  settlement,  into  which  now  steps,  seemingly 
for  the  first  time,  the  person  who  has  caused  it 
to  be  named  in  the  remotest  parts  of  the  earth, 
and  to  be  made  a  center  of  pilgrimage  of  the  mul 
titude  to  the  tomb  of  one  who  may  be  deemed 
more  than  any  other  man  of  the  historic  past  the 
People's  Hero. 

It  turned  out  that  Offut  had  been  so  occupied 
with  his  duties  at  the  Buckhorn  that  he  had  pro- 


DENTON  OFFUT.  101 

vided  no  boat  for  the  trip.  So  the  ardent  naviga 
tors  had  first  to  make  their  own  craft,  which  was 
easily  accomplished  by  these  deft  backwoodsmen, 
handy  with  edged  tools,  particularly  with  the 
axe.  Lincoln,  it  may  be  here  interpolated,  always 
showed  a  taste  for  mechanics  and  decided  ingenuity 
in  devising  mechanical  appliances.  In  a  month 
the  boat  was  ready  and  launched;  laden  with  bar 
rel-pork,  corn,  and  live  hogs,  it  was  swung  out 
into  the  roaring  Sangamon,  the  classic  stream,  and 
started  to  keep  company  with  those  turbid  waters 
sweeping  Gulf  ward.  But  behold!  a  mill-dam 
interrupts  the  stream  at  Rutledge's  mill,  New 
Salem;  the  boat  is  stranded  on  it,  and  hangs  over 
the  edge  of  it  for  twenty-four  hours,  with  bow 
high  in  air,  and  stern  dipping  water.  What  is  to 
be  done?  Unload  the  hogs  and  corn  into  another 
boat  borrowed  for  the  occasion;  then  bore  a  hole 
through  the  bottom  at  the  front,  roll  the  barrels  of 
pork  forward,  whereat  the  craft  tilts,  the  water 
within  it  runs  out  of  the  auger-hole  and  over  the 
dam  she  slides  in  safety.  Stopping  the  hole  in  the 
bottom,  and  bailing  out  the  water  our  heroic  navi 
gators  start  on  their  journey,  if  not  round  the 
whole  globe,  at  least  round  quite  a  perceptible 
segment  of  it. 

It  is  agreed  that  the  central  figure  of  the  incident 
at  Rutledge's  dam  was  Lincoln.  His  ingenuity 
took  control  in  the  pinch  of  the  crisis,  even  to  the 
boring  of  the  auger-hole,  the  culminating  act.  He 


102         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

shows  himself  the  man  for  the  emergency.  Small 
indeed  is  the  occurrence,  yet  typical;  behold  him 
some  thirty  years  after  this,  on  another  far  larger 
boat,  nothing  less  than  the  Ship  of  State  which  is 
dashing  about,  with  an  utterly  helpless  helmsman, 
on  the  angry  rapids  toward  the  plunge  of  Niagara. 
Lincoln  getting  aboard  seizes  the  helm,  and  directs 
the  mighty  hitherto  drifting  craft  and  shoots  the 
cataract  safely — the  only  man,  seemingly  among 
millions,  who  was  able  to  do  the  job.  Thus  we 
may  be  permitted  to  link  together  the  small  and 
the  great  in  the  life  of  the  Hero,  the  little  incident 
in  its  little  way  pre-figuring  the  vast  deed  of  the 
future. 

But  dropping  these  far-off  soul-stretching  fore 
casts  and  coming  down  to  an  immediate  look  be 
fore  us,  we  may  see  the  whole  village  of  New  Salem 
gazing  from  the  hill-side  at  the  stranded  boat, 
with  many  a  vociferation  from  the  men,  who  scream 
out  from  the  point  of  safety  what  was  to  be  done. 
But  when  the  crisis  is  met  successfully,  Lincoln  is 
a  famous  man  in  that  community;  indeed  Offut 
is  there  on  the  bank  singing  his  praises,  and  de 
claring  that  now  the  problem  of  the  navigation 
of  the  Sangamon  is  solved,  the  right  man  having 
appeared.  We  shall  build  a  new  kind  of  steam 
boat,  says  he,  with  rollers  for  shoals  and  dams, 
with  runners  for  ice,  and  chiefly  we  shall  make 
Lincoln  captain,  and  then,  "by  thunder,  she'd 
have  to  go."  So  that  village  choiring  with 


DEN  TON  OF  PUT.  103 

its  hundred  voices  in  unison,  sings  that  day  the 
lofty  praises  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  will  not  soon 
forget  him.  On  his  side  let  it  be  noted  he  will 
not  forget  New  Salem.  And  let  it  be  imagined 
that  among  the  crowd  looking  at  the  sight  from 
the  hillside  must  have  stood  Ann  Rutledge,  the 
fair  heroine  of  the  New  Salem  idyl,  who  witnessed 
the  first  dramatic  appearance  of  the  village  hero, 
doubtless  with  a  heart  beating  admiration  at  his 
deed  of  skill  and  courage. 

The  little  craft  soon  passed  into  the  Illinois  out  of 
the  Sangamon  and  thence  into  the  Mississippi,  float 
ing  by  many  towns  and  cities,  and  meeting  many 
sorts  of  boats.  At  last  the  boatmen  reached  New 
Orleans,  sold  their  cargo,  viewed  the  sights  of  the 
city.  Here  Lincoln  saw  the  worst  horrors  of  slav 
ery,  which  was  far  milder  in  his  native  Kentucky. 
With  his  own  eyes  he  beheld  "  negroes  in  chains 
— whipped  and  scourged."  In  his  wanderings  he 
ran  on  a  slave-auction;  a  comely  mulatto  girl  was 
on  the  block,  being  pinched  and  felt  and  otherwise 
tested  by  the  bidders.  At  the  repulsive  sight 
Lincoln  is  reported  to  have  shown  great  indigna 
tion,  and  to  have  dropped  the  prophetic  words :  "If 
I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit  that  thing  (slavery),  I'll 
hit  it  hard."  So  Lincoln  ought  to  have  said,  even 
if  he  did  not,  for  the  striking  incident  has  been 
shown  to  be  uncertain,  as  if  fabled  after  the  great 
event  to  which  it  has  a  covert  allusion. 

The  navigator   came    back  by  steamboat  and 


104         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

landed  at  St.  Louis.  They  crossed  to  Edwards- 
ville,  thence  Lincoln  with  his  step-brother  who 
had  been  along,  set  out  on  foot  for  the  new  home 
of  his  father,  who  had  moved  again,  quitting  the 
valley  of  the  Sangamon  on  account  of  another 
sickness,  chills  and  fever.  The  son  found  the  par 
ents  located  on  Goose  Neck  prairie,  Coles  County, 
a  few  miles  from  Charleston,  the  county  seat.  His 
stay  was  not  long,  not  more  than  a  month;  he  felt 
he  must  persist  in  his  separation  from  the  parental 
hearth  already  begun  the  year  before.  He  struck 
out  for  the  upper  Sangamon  again,  and  apparently 
in  some  kind  of  a  boat  once  more  drifted  down 
stream  into  New  Salem,  where,  as  he  puts  it  in 
his  second  autobiography,  " Abraham  stopped 
indefinitely,  and  for  the  first  time,  as  it  were,  by 
himself,"  apart  from  all  former  relatives,  friends, 
and  associates.  As  individual  he  now  asserts 
himself,  quite  alone  and  ready  to  work  his  own  pas 
sage  through  the  world.  "This  was  in  July  1831," 
as  Lincoln  dates  it,  and  adds  that  "here  he  rapidly 
made  acquaintances  and  friends,"  a  wholly  new 
set  of  them,  and  quite  different  from  those  whom 
he  had  previously  known.  So  is  marked  a  new 
step  or  stage  in  his  Apprenticeship. 

We  may  conceive  that  Lincoln  was  drawn  to 
New  Salem  by  a  curiosity  to  see  again  the  scene 
of  his  famous  exploit,  and  to  get  acquainted  with 
the  inhabitants,  who  had  witnessed  and  applauded 
his  triumph  from  the  hill-side,  and  who,  therefore, 


NEW  SALEM.  105 

already  recognized  him  as  somewhat  of  a  hero. 
Why  should  he  not  have  the  best  start  in  life  just 
at  that  point?  But  there  was  another  ground 
which  if  not  so  ideal,  was  more  practical:  Offut, 
the  persistent  trumpeter  of  his  glory,  had  offered 
him  a  good  position.  Let  the  autobiography 
again  speak:  "He  (Offut)  conceived  a  liking  for 
Abraham,  and  believing  he  could  turn  him  to  ac 
count,  contracted  with  him  to  act  as  clerk  for  him 
on  his  return  from  New  Orleans  in  charge  of  a 
store  and  mill  at  New  Salem." 

So  Lincoln,  having  broken  loose  from  home  and 
described  a  considerable  circle  on  land  and  water 
during  the  year,  settles  down  in  the  river  village 
which  he  is  to  make  memorable  by  his  stay. 

II. 

New  Salem. 

Already  we  have  made  the  name  of  New  Salem 
familiar  to  our  reader,  to  whom  now  must  be  given 
a  somewhat  more  explicit  account  of  it.  A  small 
place  with  never  more  than  one  hundred  souls 
in  it,  yet  with  an  earth-girdling  ambition;  it 
dreamed  of  a  greatness  never  to  be  fulfilled,  as  it 
lay  on  its  bluff  in  the  sunshine,  elevated  about 
thirty  yards  above  the  general  level  of  the  land 
around.  At  its  feet  rolled  the  Sangamon,  the 
deceitful  little  stream  upon  which  it  built  its  vast 
hopes.  It  was  founded  not  more  than  two  years 


106         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST 

before  Lincoln's  arrival  and  its  life  lasts  not  long 
after  his  departure.  Still  it  had  at  its  best  a 
thriving,  throbbing  existence.  A  brisk  trade  it 
drove  with  the  surrounding  country,  having  four 
stores,  two  mills  and  a  tavern.  Two  spiritual 
guides  are  set  down  among  its  people,  a  preacher 
of  whom  we  do  not  hear  much,  and  a  school 
master,  famous  through  Lincoln.  A  small  quota 
of  artisans  had  their  shops  about  the  village,  which 
had  something  original  in  its  simple  communal 
life  on  the  border  of  civilization.  This  communal 
life  is  what  Lincoln  is  to  experience,  being  the  new 
fact  upon  which  he  comes  in  his  career.  More 
over  he  is  to  take  his  part  in  the  rise  and  the  fall 
of  the  place  and  to  turn  out  in  his  way  its  leading 
man.  New  Salem  we  may  regard  as  Lincoln's 
symbol  for  this  period  of  his  life,  reflecting  the  trend 
of  his  spirit  in  its  character.  Lincoln's  designation 
of  himself  as  "a  piece  of  floating  drift-wood" 
could  also  be  applied  to  New  Salem,  his  com 
munal  environment. 

Offut's  goods  were  slow  in  arriving,  and  Lincoln 
spent  his  time  chiefly  in  lounging  about  town, 
making  himself  known  and  getting  to  know  the 
people.  Also  he  turned  his  hand  to  odd  jobs  that 
came  along.  His  first  was  that  of  clerk  at  an 
election.  Here  he  had  an  opportunity  to  try  his 
story-telling  gift  on  the  small  knots  of  voters  who 
loitered  round  the  polling  place.  Tradition  has 
handed  down  his  success  as  well  as  some  of  his 


NEW  SALEM.  107 

stories.  The  result  of  the  election  for  him  was 
that  he  won  the  position  of  chief  fabulist  and  yarn- 
spinner  of  the  place,  the  public  poet  we  may  deem 
him,  like  the  bard  of  the  old  Homeric  village.  Such 
was  his  chief  office  in  New  Salem,  and  nobody  ever 
supplanted  him. 

But  at  last  Offut  opens  his  store  and  Lincoln  is 
his  clerk.  For  success  in  business  the  combina 
tion  cannot  be  pronounced  a  happy  one.  Offut 
was  a  swaggering,  good-hearted  fellow,  too  fond  of 
the  bottle  and  of  boon  companions  at  the  tavern; 
Lincoln  was  untrained  to  business  and  given  more 
to  jesting  and  story-telling  than  to  selling  merchan 
dise  at  a  profit.  Lincoln's  own  report  of  the  matter 
runs:  "In  less  than  a  year  Offut 's  business  was 
failing — had  almost  failed — when  the  Black  Hawk 
war  broke  out."  Let  it  be  stated  here  that  Lincoln 
in  almost  ascetic  contrast  with  his  surroundings, 
did  not  drink  or  smoke  or  squirt  tobacco  juice; 
still  he  could  get  intoxicated  on  a  good  joke  or 
story  of  his  own,  and  treat  the  crowd  to  a  horse 
laugh,  in  which  they  would  all  join  with  a  rustic 
sincerity.  That  was  chiefly  what  was  going  on 
at  Offut's  new  store,  the  village's  place  of  enter 
tainment. 

New  Salem  had  a  good  deal  of  the  mushroom  in 
its  character,  and  Offut  with  his  business  was  a 
kind  of  pre-figurement  of  its  destiny.  There  was 
an  uncertain  element  about  it,  something  unreal, 
grotesque,  indicated  in  basing  its  existence  upon 


108          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN-PART  FIRST. 

the  navigation  of  the  Sangamon.  Offut  is  a  fan 
tastic  figure,  and  Lincoln  is  not  without  the  same 
trait.  Both  he  and  the  village  take  delight  in 
humorous  grotesquery,  and  both  are  in  themselves 
grotesques,  to  a  degree.  Both  are  drifting  together 
in  a  sea  of  fantasticalities  at  this  time;  we  shall 
see  this  town  sink,  and  Lincoln  come  to  anchor 
after  a  flight  from  it.  How  often  did  he  change 
his  vocation  at  New  Salem  and  think  of  other 
changes  which  he  never  made ! 

And  a  deeper,  yet  concordant  fact  must  be  noted. 
Profoundly  it  lay  in  the  character  of  the  village  to 
show  a  skeptical  tendency;  in  its  very  scanty  list 
of  books  we  hear  of  Paine,  Voltaire  and  Volney. 
Lincoln  partook  of  this  trait  also,  which  long  left 
its  mark  upon  him.  Mentally  adrift  were  the 
time,  the  place  and  the  man — that  was  a  part  of 
his  present  Apprenticeship.  He  passes  through  a 
negative  stage  which  questions  and  perchance 
denies  the  ancient  foundations  of  belief.  We  may 
well  call  New  Salem  a  negative  town,  and  hence  it 
vanished  through  its  own  inner  dialectic.  A  kind 
of  grotesque  inferno  it  is  then  for  Lincoln,  who 
has  to  go  through  it  and  then  rise  out  of  it.  Old 
Peter  Cartwright,  the  frontier  circuit-rider  of 
Methodism,  would  call  it  a  nest  of  infidels;  in  his 
later  political  campaign  for  Congress,  when  he  ran 
against  Lincoln,  he  did  not  fail  to  make  the  most 
of  the  latter 's  religious  shortcomings.  An  un 
settled  existence  the  village  led,  internally  and  ex- 


NEW  SALEM.  109 

ternally,  mentally  and  physically.  This  skeptical 
spirit  Lincoln  reflected,  had  to  reflect,  in  a  piece  of 
writing,  in  a  long  essay  or  book  against  the  leading 
tenets  of  Christianity,  which,  it  is  said,  he  in 
tended  to  print.  He  carried  it  around  with  him, 
took  it  to  the  store  and  discussed  it  with  friends, 
one  of  whom  (named  Samuel  Hill,  his  employer) 
snatched  the  manuscript  and  thrust  it  into  the 
stove,  where  it  was  soon  reduced  to  smoke  and 
cinders,  never  to  be  resuscitated  by  its  author. 
Thus  was  his  negation  negated,  out  of  which  fact 
he  might  have  learned  more  than  he  ever  did  from 
the  writings  of  the  French  skeptics,  whose  negation 
was  also  furiously  negated  in  the  flames  of  the 
French  Revolution.  And  skeptical,  negative  New 
Salem  itself  will  burn  up,  like  Lincoln's  book, 
not  indeed  in  a  sudden  conflagration,  but  in  a  very 
rapid  fire  kindled  by  old  Father  Time  himself. 
And  our  Lincoln,  badly  scotched  but  not  inciner 
ated,  we  shall  behold  fleeing  this  new  Hell-fire, 
in  which  he  ought  now  to  get  some  faith. 

Still  New  Salem,  we  must  not  forget,  had  its 
positive  side  which  exerted  an  abiding  influence 
upon  Lincoln.  In  it  he  made  an  easy  transition 
from  farm-life  to  town-life,  and  thereby  participated 
in  a  new  institution  of  which  he  became  an  inde 
pendent  member  through  himself  as  individual. 
The  Family  had  hitherto  controlled  him,  absorbed 
him  as  it  were,  telling  him  what  to  do  and  taking 
the  proceeds.  From  this  intimate  domestic  bond 


110          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

New  Salem  severs  him,  and  compels  him  to  asso 
ciate  himself  anew,  in  his  own  right  and  through 
his  own  activity.  He  is  trained  to  make  himself 
valid  individually  in  a  community  not  too  large 
nor  too  small,  which  is  itself  in  a  formative  stage 
along  with  everybody  in  it.  We  have  to  consider 
then,  that  New  Salem  represents  a  landing-place 
in  Lincoln's  development  into  freedom.  He  be 
comes  a  self-controlled  atom  which  associates  itself 
with  others  like  it  in  a  free  communal  life,  he 
being  able  to  make  himself  the  leader,  the  first 
person  of  the  place,  really  "the  big  buck  of  the 
lick,"  as  he  once  called  himself  in  a  different 
situation. 

Through  his  New  Salem  experience  Lincoln  has 
tested  himself  with  many  yet  not  with  too  many, 
and  has  come  to  know  himself  to  be  the  best  man 
not  only  in  brawn  but  in  brain.  The  village 
Hercules  triumphs  in  might,  and  also  in  mind.  He 
reaches  a  consciousness  of  his  true  Self  to  the 
point  of  a  strong  belief  in  his  own  destiny.  Mod 
esty,  yes;  but  equally  a  decided  self-appreciation 
and  self-reliance,  for  his  fellow-villagers  reflect  his 
own  worth  back  to  him  at  every  meeting. 

New  Salem,  just  through  its  negative  character 
helps  to  separate  Lincoln  from  the  indifferent  level 
of  the  multitude.  We  see  him  beginning  his  rise 
out  of  the  protoplasmic  mass  of  the  Folk,  and  be 
coming  one  of  its  leaders,  who  first  gets  to  be 
conscious  of  himself  and  then  to  be  conscious  of  it 


THE  VILLAGE  SCHOOLMASTER.  Ill 

in  its  supreme  though  unconscious  end,  who  learns 
to  converse  with  it  in  its  own  speech  and  to  shape 
in  words  its  quite  chaotic  instincts  which  well  up 
from  the  deepest  sources.  From  this  mass  he  has 
to  separate  and  yet  be  of  it,  sharing  its  soul,  speak 
ing  its  tongue  and  finally  voicing  to  it  its  own 
world-historical  purpose. 

The  Sangamon  dries  up,  and  New  Salem  with  it; 
the  village  never  grows  old  but  dies  in  its  very 
efflorescence,  fading  away  like  and  almost  with 
blooming  Ann  Rutledge,  Lincoln's  earliest  and 
fairest  flower  of  love. 

III. 

The  Village  Schoolmaster. 

Intellectually  the  most  important  man  in  New 
Salem  for  Lincoln  was  the  village  schoolmaster, 
who  knew  somewhat  more  than  Lincoln  did,  and 
seems  to  have  been  ever  ready  to  impart  his  knowl 
edge.  We  have  already  seen  these  pioneer 
teachers  following  the  frontier  settlements  and 
weaving  their  influence  into  the  career  of  Lincoln. 
The  present  one  was  evidently  the  most  influential 
of  all,  though  Lincoln  appears  never  to  have  gone 
to  school  to  him  directly.  Still  he  was  the  guide 
and  the  instructor  of  the  youth  in  a  number  of 
branches  for  several  years.  Very  striking  and 
suggestive  is  that  name  of  his,  though  seemingly 
accidental;  he  was  truly  a  Mentor  to  our  young 
Abraham  eagerly  seeking  knowledge.  Again  the 


112         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

old  Greek  poet  is  recalled,  from  whom  this  very 
name  has  come  down  to  New  Salem,  and  has 
interlinked  the  ancient  with  the  modern.  So  in 
our  Homeric  town  on  the  Sangamon  the  sage 
Mentor  again  appears,  whose  form  Pallas  Athena, 
the  Goddess  of  Wisdom  assumes,  speaking  the 
words  of  hope  to  our  youthful  Telemachus,  and 
giving  him  wise  counsel  as  well  as  weighty  instruc 
tion.  Ithacan  Mentor,  divinely  voiced,  has  be 
come  the  American  schoolmaster  in  this  little 
Lincolniad,  and  the  latter  may  also  hear  betimes 
a  celestial  whisper,  even  if  he  cannot  now  see  an 
actual  epiphany  of  the  Olympians. 

The  name  of  Mentor  Graham,  the  schoolmaster 
at  New  Salem,  cannot  be  left  out  of  Lincoln's 
biography.  The  two  had  first  met  and  had  found 
each  other  out  on  election  day.  Graham  saw  a 
tall  raw-boned  young  fellow  hanging  about  the 
polls  and  telling  stories.  The  schoolmaster  being 
the  clerk,  needed  help,  and  felt  the  impulse  to  call 
the  stranger,  propounding  to  him  the  question: 
"Can  you  write?"  Lincoln  humorously  drawled 
out:  "I  can  make  a  few  rabbit  tracks."  Graham 
knew  that  he  had  discovered  his  man  and  at  once 
inducted  him  into  office.  He  did  its  duties  accept 
ably  and  filled  up  the  gaps  of  time  with  his  yarns. 

Evidently  a  bond  of  friendship  thenceforth  was 
established  between  the  two;  the  schoolmaster  had 
time  to  measure  the  capacity  of  the  youth  and  to 
feel  his  aspiration.  Lincoln  through  his  writing 


THE  VILLAGE  SCHOOLMASTER.  113 

and  speaking  had  grown  conscious  of  a  deficiency 
in  his  training;  it  is  possible  that  in  some  little 
incident  the  schoolmaster  may  have  brought  it 
to  his  notice.  At  any  rate  he  became  aware  that 
speech  is  organized  and  has  its  laws,  of  which  he 
was  ignorant.  These,  then,  he  must  learn  if  he  is 
ever  going  to  be  a  writer  or  speaker.  It  dawns 
upon  him  that  his  next  serious  study  must  be 
Grammar,  which  he  had  never  taken  in  his  school 
days;  he  seems  hardly  to  have  known  of  it  then. 
He  consulted  Graham,  who  encouraged  him 
heartily,  particularly  "if  you  are  going  before 
the  public."  The  strange  fact  comes  out  that  the 
schoolmaster  had  no  Grammar,  that  there  was 
none  in  New  Salem.  Still  he  knew  of  one  belong 
ing  to  a  man  six  miles  from  the  village.  Lincoln 
at  once  set  out  for  the  place  on  foot  and  succeeded 
in  borrowing  the  book.  It  was  a  copy  of  Samuel 
Kirkham's  English  Grammar,  well  known  through 
out  the  West  in  early  days,  now  quite  supplanted 
and  hurled  down  into  the  huge  limbo  of  departed 
text-books.  The  copy  used  by  Lincoln  is  still  in 
existence,  with  some  of  his  writing  upon  it.  But 
what  a  boon  to  him !  His  heart  must  have  leaped 
with  new  hope  as  he  read  upon  the  title-page 
the  promises,  for  the  work  will  reveal  to  him  not 
only  the  Parts  of  Speech  but  also  "a  new  system- 
atick  order  of  parsing,"  and  likewise  "a  new 
system  of  punctuation  and  exercises  in  false 
syntax,"  all  of  which  is  designed  "for  the  use  of 


114         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

schools  and  private  learners "  like  himself.  It 
is  declared  that  he  studied  the  book  incessantly 
till  he  mastered  it,  and  even  committed  to  memory 
its  contents,  with  its  numerous  quotations  of  sage 
maxims  and  of  poetry. 

A  significant  step  in  his  culture  we  must  deem 
it  when  he  became  acquainted  with  the  structure 
of  the  language  which  he  had  before  used  instinc 
tively,  getting  conscious  of  what  he  had  always 
done  unconsciously,  and  thereby  becoming  able 
to  handle  the  weapon  which  hitherto  had  rather 
handled  him.  Lincoln  was  ready  not  only  to 
understand  but  to  appreciate  Grammar,  which 
too  often  is  foisted  prematurely  upon  young  minds, 
to  their  confusion  and  disgust.  But  Lincoln,  now 
twenty-two  years  old,  saw  through  it,  absorbed  and 
assimilated  it  with  great  avidity;  as  is  reported  by 
one  who  must  have  known  the  fact,  namely,  his 
bed-fellow  who  had  to  hold  the  book  and  hear 
him  repeat  the  contents.  Whenever  he  could  not 
pull  through  a  difficulty,  Schoolmaster  Graham 
was  called  upon  and  helped  him  out.  Pleasant 
it  must  have  been  to  the  teacher  to  see  the  chaos 
of  speech  gradually  getting  ordered  and  slowly 
transforming  itself  into  a  linguistic  cosmos  in  the 
mind  of  that  uncouth  lad  of  mighty  aspiration. 

And  let  it  be  noted  that  among  the  pupils  of 
Master  Graham's  School  was  Ann  Rutledge,  the 
budding  flower  of  this  little  Homeric  world.  She 
must  have  seen  Lincoln  there,  and  known  his 


THE  VILLAGE  SCHOOLMASTER.  115 

talent  as  well  as  his  tireless  pursuit  of  culture. 
This  desire  she,  too,  possessed,  and  it  must  have 
been  already  a  common  bond  of  sympathy.  That 
very  copy  of  Kirkham's  Grammar,  still  extant, 
which  he  studied  so  thoroughly  and  of  which  he 
became  the  owner,  he  afterwards  gave  to  Ann 
Rutledge,  who  evidently  wished  to  master  it  too, 
and  so  be  on  a  par  with  him.  Through  her  it  has 
descended  in  her  family  as  an  inherited  treasure. 
Upon  its  title  page  we  read  in  Lincoln's  hand 
writing:  Ann  M.  Rutledge  is  now  learning  Gram 
mar.  Such  is  the  simple  inscription,  but  under 
neath  it  with  its  attendant  circumstances  we  may 
read  that  these  two  souls  are  beginning  to  have 
a  common  hope  and  purpose,  a  union  of  hearts 
fortified  by  a  union  of  intellects,  out  of  which  can 
spring  the  deepest  happiness  of  life,  or  its  tragedy. 
Nor  can  we  help  recalling  once  more  in  the  pre 
sent  conjuncture  that  other  Mentor  who  lived  thou 
sands  of  years  ago  in  sunny  Ithaca,  and  in  whose 
shape  the  Goddess  Pallas  Athena  appears  before  an 
other  struggling  youth  and  speaks  to  him  the  word 
of  wisdom — the  brave  Telemachus.  He  also  is  to 
set  out  on  a  new  stage  of  his  education,  being 
directed  to  proceed  to  the  sage  Nestor  that  he  may 
hear  about  his  father  Ulysses  and  learn  lore  from 
ancestral  example.  So  our  new  Mentor  voicing 
the  command  of  the  Goddess  on  the  banks  of  the 
Sangamon  exclaims  to  the  aspiring  youth  there: 
Study  Grammar.  And  this  youth,  our  Abraham 


116         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

Lincoln,  hears  the  word  and  recognizes  it  to  be 
the  voice  of  the  Goddess  of  Wisdom,  and  at  once 
prepares  to  obey,  for  his  heart  is  ready  to  listen 
to  the  divine  behest.  But  Telemachus  is  to  get  his 
education  from  the  mouth  of  the  wise  old  man,  as 
there  was  no  printed  page  then,  and  withal  no 
Grammar. 

So  we  are  led  by  the  name  to  couple  the  two 
Mentors,  the  ancient  and  the  modern,  the  one  at 
Greek  Ithaca,  close  to  the  Gods,  and  the  other  at 
American  New  Salem,  rather  remote  from  divinity, 
each  of  them  being  alike  the  chosen  vehicle  of  the 
word  of  wisdom  for  two  aspiring  youths  at  the 
turning-point  of  destiny. 

IV. 

The  Village  Hercules. 

And  now  an  Homeric  contest  is  to  take  place  in 
our  Homeric  village,  which  has,  first  of  all,  to  dis 
cover  its  athletic  hero.  This  is  bound  to  be  none 
other  than  our  strong-boned,  huge-handed,  over 
topping  Abe  Lincoln.  Ever  memorable  is  the 
exploit  of  Hercules  in  his  fight  with  Antaeus,  the 
violent,  gigantic  son  of  Mother  Earth,  who  always 
imparted  to  him  renewed  strength  when  his  feet 
touched  her  terrene  body.  At  last  Hercules  lifted 
him  up  and  held  him  high  in  the  air,  crushing  him 
to  death  while  separated  from  his  might-giving 
mother.  So  the  hero  of  New  Salem,  Abe  Lincoln, 


THE  VILLAGE  HERCULES.  117 

will  wrestle  with  a  modern  earth-son,  hight  Jack 
Armstrong,  head  bully  of  Clary's  Grove;  long  the 
combat  lasts,  for  Jack  always  lights  on  his  feet 
again,  after  every  powerful  twist  and  whirl,  till 
at  last  Abe  grapples  him  by  the  throat  and  hoists 
him  aloft,  "  shaking  him  like  a  rag,"  says  our 
worthy  reporter,  Herndon,  who,  if  not  actually 
present,  heard  the  famous  exploit  often  recounted 
by  the  villagers. 

Repeatedly  the  physical  strength  and  athletic 
feats  of  Lincoln  have  been  celebrated  in  the  pre 
ceding  years;  already  in  Indiana  echoes  of  his 
prowess  have  come  down,  perpetuated  and  prob 
ably  magnified  by  his  future  renown.  But  at 
present  in  New  Salem  the  new-comer  must  vindi 
cate  his  position  in  a  new  way ;  he  must  show  him 
self  the  best  man  of  the  bailiwick.  It  is  true  the 
best  man  in  the  frontier  dialect  did  not  get  his 
superlative  from  moral  excellence,  but  from 
physical.  Again  we  think  of  the  pioneer  Greek 
age,  when  the  same  linguistic  fact  confronts  us:  the 
good  man  means  the  strong  man,  and  virtue  (arete} 
itself  is  martial  rather  than  moral.  Moreover, 
Offut,  unquestionably  the  most  enterprising  head 
and  the  windiest  mouth  in  the  place,  was  seeking 
to  develop  the  latent  gifts  of  Lincoln,  in  whom 
he  thoroughly  believed.  He  goes  boasting  around 
the  village  that  his  long-legged  awkward  clerk 
"can  outrun,  whip,  or  throw  down  any  man  in  the 
County  of  Sangamon."  This  was  taken  as  a 


118          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

challenge  to  the  entire  community  to  bring  out 
its  "best  man/'  and  settle  where  the  crown  of 
glory  belonged  by  the  tug  of  actual  conflict.  An 
Olympic  contest  is  thus  preparing  for  the  villages 
of  New  Salem  and  vicinity. 

A  few  miles  distant  from  New  Salem  stood  a 
belt  of  timber,  called  Clary's  Grove,  which  harbored 
a  set  of  young  bloods  of  the  frontier  type,  pug 
nacious,  of  terrible  name,  yet  not  wholly  depraved 
or  malicious,  often  showing  a  charity  to  the  poor 
and  a  gallantry  to  the  fair,  which  recalls  Robin 
Hood  and  his  chivalrous  foresters.  They  had 
their  leader,  their  "best  man,"  named  Jack  Arm 
strong,  whose  primacy  in  this  domain  of  sluggery 
was  accepted  by  the  whole  adjacent  country.  The 
fame  of  the  newly-arrived  athlete  was  bruited 
about  everywhere  by  the  grand  gasconader,  Offut. 
The  result  was  a  challenge,  backed  by  a  stake  of 
ten  dollars,  the  proposition  being  that  "Jack 
Armstrong  was  a  better  man  than  Abe  Lincoln." 

All  the  village  and  all  the  vicinity  assembled 
to  witness  this  new  Olympic  contest,  not  now  on 
the  sunny  banks  of  Greek  Alpheus,  but  not  far 
from  the  rippling  Sangamon  of  muddy  fame.  It  is 
reported  that  the  whole  proceeding  was  very  dis 
tasteful  to  Lincoln  with  his  Quaker  strain;  but  his 
friends  had  compromised  him  and  themselves,  a 
back-down  could  not  be  thought  of,  and  so  he 
sailed  in.  The  climax  seems  to  have  been  when 
the  tall  Hercules  in  a  final  supreme  effort,  picked 


THE  VILLAGE  HERCULES.  119 

up  his  antagonist  as  if  another  Antaeus,  held  him 
out  at  arm's  length  and  shook  him  "like  a  rag." 
That  was  the  triumphant  end  of  the  conflict,  and 
we  suppose  that  the  assembled  multitude  tore 
their  throats  and  the  circumambient  air  with 
acclamations  for  the  victor,  while  defeated  bully- 
dom  slunk  off  to  its  lair  out  of  sight  at  Clary's 
Grove,  wiser  and  seemingly  repentant  through  the 
castigation.  For  listen!  "Jack  Armstrong,  his 
wife  Hannah,  and  all  the  other  Armstrongs"  show 
ever  afterwards  warm  friendship  for  Lincoln,  who 
in  his  turn  would  "rock  Hannah's  babies"  while 
on  a  visit,  and  she  would  "fox  his  pantaloons"  oft 
broken  in  spots.  And  in  later  times  when  a  lawyer 
at  Springfield,  Lincoln  saved  "one  member  of  the 
family  from  the  gallows"  through  his  legal  skill, 
though  the  fellow  probably  ought  to  have  been 
hung.  Thus  the  two  grand  protagonists  of  New 
Salem  and  Clary's  Grove  conquer  a  lasting  peace 
between  themselves  and  seemingly  between  their 
neighborhoods. 

And  now  in  addition  to  being  chief  fabler  and 
yarn-spinner  of  the  place,  our  Lincoln  has  added 
another  large  sprig  of  laurel  to  his  wreath  of  glory ; 
he  is  acclaimed  "the  best  man  in  town."  A 
modern  Olympic  victor  on  the  banks  of  the  San- 
gamon  we  have  to  deem  him,  worthy  of  a  high- 
soaring  Pindaric  hymn,  but  alack-a-day!  there  is 
no  Pindar  to  sing  it  to  New  Salem  and  to  all  pos 
terity.  And  our  village  Hercules  of  the  back- 


120         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—PART  FIRST. 

woods  is  not  the  fair-proportioned  statuesque 
shape  of  Hellenic  mould,  but  rather  a  grotesque 
figure  doing  grotesque  things  in  a  kind  of  grotesque 
world.  This  trait  of  his  we  must  now  grasp  and 
take  along  with  us  to  the  end;  a  strand  of  strange 
grotesquery,  not  easy  to  adjust,  runs  through  his 
whole  life.  Who  can  forget  the  man  in  his  and 
the  nation's  sorest  trial  turning  to  grotesque  humor 
for  disburdening  his  oppressed  heart,  making 
mouths  at  destiny  in  her  bitterest  spite?  In 
classic  Homer  even  Zeus  the  Highest  has  his 
grotesque  moods,  particularly  when  he  teases  his 
very  teasable  spouse  Juno.  And  Shakespeare,  on 
the  very  top  of  his  highest  tragedy  has  the  fool 
slip  in  as  if  to  mock  Fate  at  its  uttermost.  Lincoln, 
laden  with  the  great  purpose  of  his  People  and 
gifted  with  the  deep  moral  earnestness  of  his  time 
cannot  help  weaving  through  the  Divine  Order  a 
thread  of  grotesquery  to  make  it  complete. 

But  let  us  return  to  our  youthful  hero  marching 
back  from  Clary's  Grove  to  New  Salem  along  the 
two  miles'  stretch  of  road  amid  a  tumultuous  crowd 
of  whooping  friends,  who  in  a  grand  procession  are 
bringing  the  new  Olympic  victor  to  his  abode. 
This  was  probably  at  the  present  time  the  village 
hostelry  called  Rutledge  Tavern,  named  after  and 
for  a  while  kept  by  Ann  Rutledge's  father.  The 
maiden  must  also  be  imagined  there  in  her  own 
home,  taking  many  an  admiring  peep  at  the  scene 
and  its  heroic  central  figure.  For  the  Iliad  of  Troy 


THE  VILLAGE  HERCULES.  121 

town  and  also  that  of  New  Salem  cannot  be  without 
its  fair  Helen.  Let  her  then  flit  for  a  brief  moment 
before  our  eyes  in  this  little  epical  Lincolniad,  pre 
luding  a  short  faint  note  of  some  deeper  destiny 
hereafter. 

The  village  of  New  Salem,  all  unconscious  of  its 
poetic  power,  frequently  re-enacts  Homeric  ex 
ploits  in  a  kind  of  serio-comic  vein,  though  wholly 
naive  in  what  it  is  doing.  That  perfectly  natural 
grotesquery,  so  quaint  and  subtle,  imparts  an 
unaffected  mock-heroic  tinge  to  all  its  activities. 
Hardly  would  this  communal  trait  be  worth 
noticing,  had  it  not  passed  over  into  Lincoln,  in 
whom  it  was  embodied  and  concentrated,  and  whose 
character  and  utterance  it  colored  to  the  end  of  his 
days,  even  in  the  presence  of  the  dignitaries  of 
the  nation  and  of  the  earth  on  high  occasions  of 
state  in  the  White  House,  whereat  the  lofty-toned 
gentlemen  of  the  Atlantic  coast  and  elsewhere  were 
often  shocked. 

But  now  comes  the  supreme  Homeric  exploit, 
truly  epical  in  its  reach.  In  the  olden  time  each 
little  Greek  community  heard  the  call  to  arms 
against  the  Asiatic  Trojans,  and  sent  its  con 
tingent  of  warriors  under  its  village  hero  to  fight 
the  barbarous  foe.  The  summons  to  bloody  war 
is  now  to  be  heard  in  New  Salem  also,  volunteers 
will  respond  under  the  leadership  of  its  strong 
man,  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  march  out  against 
the  red-skinned  barbarians,  the  American  Indians, 


122         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

But  this  Troy  war  is  not  to  restore  beautiful  Helen, 
nor  does  it  last  ten  years,  though  it  has  its  woes 
and  its  hero.  But  let  us  devote  its  own  canto  to 
this  new  little  Iliad,  whose  theme  is  the  Black 
Hawk  War,  chiefly  famed  at  the  present  time 
for  its  New  Salem  Achilles. 

V. 

The  Black  Hawk  War. 

In  1832  when  the  Black  Hawk  war  broke  out, 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  twenty-three  years  old, 
being  already  recognized  as  the  peculiarly  gifted 
young-man  of  the  village.  He  was  specially  re 
ceptive  of  this  new  experience  of  war,  small  enough, 
but  leaving  a  strong  impression  upon  him,  and  be 
coming  truly  a  part  of  his  Apprenticeship.  It 
was  made  by  him  into  a  kind  of  romantic  back 
ground  for  his  story-telling  during  a  long  time. 
Sixteen  years  later  when  he  was  a  Congressman  at 
Washington,  he  won  eminence  by  his  stories  and 
those  pertaining  to  the  Black  Hawk  war  were 
singled  out  as  the  best.  That  event,  so  stimulat 
ing  to  his  young  creative  soul,  he  clustered  over 
and  over  in  masses  of  fable  and  romance, 
ever  sprouting  afresh  with  new  turns  from  his 
myth-making  fancy.  The  people  of  Lincoln's 
territory  had  been  deeply  stirred  and  indeed  fright 
ened  by  the  occurrence,  and  responded  with  heart 
felt  interest  to  tales  and  novelettes  born  of  its 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  123 

adventures.  In  this  matter  also  we  see  Lincoln 
voicing  the  Folk-Soul,  and  fabling  for  it  in  its  own 
form  of  utterance. 

Nor  should  we  omit  to  notice  in  this  connection 
a  speech  of  Lincoln's  in  the  National  House  of 
Representatives,  July  28th,  1848  (Works  I,  p.  142), 
in  which  he  assumes  the  mock-heroic  attitude  to 
ward  his  own  exploits  in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  by 
way  of  chaffing  General  Cass,  whom,  as  their  can 
didate  for  President,  the  Democrats  would  pedestal 
as  a  military  hero  alongside  General  Taylor,  the 
Whig  candidate  and  victor  of  Buena  Vista.  Lin 
coln  being  a  Whig,  breaks  out  into  the  following 
fantastic  strain  of  burlesquery: 

"By  the  way,  Mr.  Speaker,  did  you  know  I  am 
a  military  hero?  Yes,  Sir;  in  the  days  of  the  Black 
Hawk  war  I  fought,  bled  and  came  away.  Speak 
ing  of  General  Cass's  career  reminds  me  of  my  own. 
I  was  not  at  Stillman's  defeat,  but  I  was  about  as 
near  it  as  Cass  was  to  Hull's  surrender;  and,  like 
him,  I  saw  the  place  very  soon  afterward.  It  is 
quite  certain  I  did  not  break  my  sword,  for  I  had 
none  to  break;  but  I  bent  a  musket  pretty  badly  on 
one  occasion.  If  Cass  broke  his  sword,  the  idea  is 
that  he  broke  it  in  desperation;  I  bent  the  musket 
by  accident.  If  General  Cass  went  in  advance  of 
me  in  picking  huckleberries,  I  guess  I  surpassed 
him  in  charges  upon  the  wild  onions.  If  he  saw 
any  live,  fighting  Indians,  it  was  more  than  I  did; 
but  I  had  a  good  many  bloody  struggles  with  the 


124         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

mosquitoes,  and  although  I  never  fainted  from  loss 
of  blood,  I  can  truly  say  I  was  often  very  hungry." 
Such  was  Lincoln's  humorous  echo  of  his  heroic 
achievements  in  the  Black  Hawk  war  long  after 
ward.  But  let  us  go  back  to. New  Salem  and  watch 
the  beginning  of  this  episode.  It  had  become 
manifest  that  Offut  was  failing  in  business  and 
must  soon  close.  Lincoln  was  already  looking  for 
some  other  occupation;  it  is  a  mark  of  his  self-re 
liance  as  well  as  of  his  self-appreciation  that  the 
raw  young  fellow  announced  himself  a  candidate 
for  the  State  Legislature  early  in  March,  1832, 
and  issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  Sangamon 
County,  feeling  himself  duly  prepared  to  talk 
grammatically,  which  most  of  the  members  could 
not  do.  Evidently  Offut  has  performed  his  func 
tion  in  the  life  of  Lincoln,  having  separated  him 
from  home,  and  given  him  an  opportunity  for  a 
new  stage  of  experience  in  the  village  of  New  Salem. 
In  this  Apprenticeship  of  Lincoln,  Denton  Offut 
therefore  has  his  little  niche,  and  is  endowed  with 
an  inconspicuous  immortality  through  his  help 
of  and  faith  in  Abraham  Lincoln,  to  whom  he  has 
given  quite  a  little  push  forward  in  reaching  that 
great  goal  which  we  all  now  see,  but  he  then  could 
not.  Offut  soon  disappears  without  leaving  a 
trace,  investigation  since  conducted  has  failed  to 
find  whither  he  went  from  New  Salem.  Enough; 
he  has  performed  his  part  in  the  world's  history, 
and  also  in  this  biography. 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  125 

But  listen!  what  is  this  piece  of  newest  news? 
A  horseman  comes  riding  into  town  one  of  these 
April  days  (1832),  and  brings  a  call  to  arms. 
The  Indians  under  their  chief,  the  much-feared 
Black  Hawk,  are  on  the  war-path,  have  crossed  the 
Mississippi  into  Illinois,  and  have  invaded  the 
Rock  River  country  in  the  Northern  part  of  the 
State.  The  Governor  has  issued  a  call  for  volun 
teers  and  whisked  it  towards  every  point  of  the 
compass  by  trusty  messengers,  one  of  whom  gal 
lops  through  New  Salem  scattering  hand-bills. 
Lincoln  quits  the  store,  stops  his  electioneering, 
and  enlists.  A  company  is  formed  and  he  is  chosen 
captain. 

This  election  Lincoln  always  deemed  a  bright 
feather  in  his  cap  of  glory,  and  he  never  failed  to 
point  to  it,  the  occasion  offering.  In  both  his  short 
autobiographic  sketches  he  mentions  it  with  a 
distinct  cachinnation  of  delight.  In  the  first  and 
briefest  he  writes:  "Then  came  the  Black  Hawk 
war;  and  I  was  elected  a  captain  of  volunteers — 
a  success  which  gave  me  more  pleasure  than  any 
I  have  had  since,"  (written  in  1859).  The  second 
and  longest  account  speaks  of  the  same  event  in 
the  third  person:  " Abraham  joined  a  volunteer 
company,  and  to  his  own  surprise  was  elected 
captain  of  it.  He  says  he  has  not  since  had  any 
success  in  life  which  gave  him  so  much  satisfaction. 
He  went  to  the  campaign,  served  near  three  months, 
met  the  ordinary  hardships  of  such  an  expedition, 


126         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

but  was  in  no  battle,"  (written  in  I860,  before 
his  election  to  the  Presidency).  Well  may  he  take 
pleasure  in  this  vote  of  confidence  from  his  fellow- 
citizens,  probably  the  first  truly  appreciative  one 
in  his  life.  A  considerable  body  of  grown  men  have 
selected  him  as  their  leader,  in  what  seems  an  im 
portant  emergency.  A  little  prelude  we  may  enjoy 
in  it  of  far-off  mighty  events  which  are  soon  to 
take  up  their  march  in  History,  when  again  Lincoln 
will  be  elected  Captain. 

So  our  Abraham  at  the  head  of  his  little  band 
steps  forth  proud  and  tall  as  the  leading  warrior 
of  New  Salem,  and  our  Illinois  village  on  the  fron 
tier  again  insists  on  imitating  Homer  or  parodying 
him  in  dead  earnest,  without  knowing  a  word  about 
him.  For  now  under  its  local  Hero  or  Strong  Man 
it  sends  forth  its  contingent  to  "the  bloody  bridge 
of  war"  to  fight  against  the  Trojans  and  King 
Priam,  who  have  re-appeared  on  the  Western  con 
tinent  along  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  in  the 
form  of  American  savages  and  their  chieftain 
Black  Hawk,  though  the  latter  have  indeed  not 
stolen  Helen  or  anything,  but  rather  have  been 
stolen  from  by  these  valorous  Greeks  of  the  Oc 
cident. 

An  earnest  passing  glance  we  may  cast  upon  the 
Indian  who  has  shown  himself  wholly  unable  to 
counteract  or  to  assimilate  the  ever-encroaching 
Anglo-Saxon  civilization.  Black  Hawk  with  true 
insight  touches  the  ground  of  his  people's  decline: 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  127 

"My  reason  teaches  me  that  land  cannot  be  sold — 
nothing  can  be  sold  but  such  things  as  can  be 
carried  away."  Still  the  Indians  had  sold  their 
lands,  hardly  knowing  what  they  had  done.  In 
dividual  ownership  of  the  soil  lay  beyond  their 
horizon.  In  the  words  of  Black  Hawk:  "The 
Great  Spirit  gave  it  (the  soil)  to  his  children  to  live 
upon  and  to  cultivate/'  not  to  traffic  in  it  as  a  piece 
of  movable  property.  "If  they  voluntarily  leave 
it,  then  any  other  people  have  the  right  to  settle 
upon  it,"  thinks  the  Indian  confined  to  the  idea  of 
his  primitive  Village  Community,  out  of  which  he 
is  totally  unable  to  pass.  It  is  the  conflict  of  two 
institutional  worlds,  the  outgoing  and  the  incom 
ing,  there  taking  place  along  the  border  land. 
Lincoln  has  a  part  in  this  conflict,  siding  of  course 
with  his  own  race's  civilization.  How  could  he 
help  it?  For  the  struggle  between  the  red  man 
and  the  white  man  is  not  merely  a  physical  tussle, 
but  a  contest  between  two  institutions,  of  which 
each  colliding  party  is  the  bearer.  The  deepest 
fact  of  man  is  that  world  of  institutions  lying  in 
his  soul,  out  of  which  world  he  can  no  more  take  a 
leap  than  out  of  his  skin.  So  Lincoln  amid  his 
other  experiences  gets  a  taste  of  that  long  Ameri 
can  struggle  on  the  frontier  between  what  is  usu 
ally  called  barbarism  and  civilization — a  struggle 
which  has  already  lasted  more  than  two  hundred 
years,  and  in  which  his  ancestors  have  participated 
for  generations.  He  could  hardly  help  thinking 


128         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

of  his  grandfather,  also  an  Abraham  Lincoln,  who 
migrating  to  Kentucky  as  a  pioneer,  was  slain  by 
an  Indian  in  ambush. 

Moreover  our  Abraham  Lincoln  now  gets  quite 
a  little  dip  into  military  life,  of  which  he  is  to  have 
so  large  an  experience  in  the  future.  To  be  sure 
there  was  no  field  for  grand  strategy  in  that  petty 
hurly-burly  of  redskins  and  backwoodsmen  on  the 
border.  But  there  had  to  be  drill  and  military 
routine,  since  the  West-Pointer  was  there  and  in 
command.  In  this  regard  it  is  interesting  to  note 
that  Lincoln  gets  to  know  somewhat  of  the  United 
States  army  officers — a  class  of  men  with  whom  he 
will  have  much  to  do  hereafter  in  many  notable 
ways.  Colonel  Zachary  Taylor  was  there  with  im 
portant  duties,  one  of  which  was  to  quell  a  mutiny 
of  rebellious  volunteers  in  face  of  the  enemy;  him 
Lincoln  afterwards  supported  for  the  Presidency. 
Lieutenant  Albert  Sidney  Johnston  was  there,  after 
wards  General  in  the  Southern  Confederacy  who  fell 
mortally  wounded  at  Shiloh,  battling  against  troops 
under  the  command  of  that  obscure  Illinois  Captain, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  when  he  had  risen  to  be  Com 
mander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United 
States.  A  young  Lieutenant  of  Artillery  was  there, 
Robert  Anderson,  to  whom  it  was  allotted  to  open 
the  Civil  War  at  Fort  Sumter  under  that  same 
"Commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the 
United  States,"  whom  he  had  mustered  out  of 
military  service  some  twenty-nine  years  before 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  129 

that  event.  A  most  significant  commentary  on 
American  Institutions  is  all  this,  with  their  unsur 
passed  power  of  bringing  the  right  man  to  the  front, 
though  of  the  humblest  birth,  against  the  social 
privileges  and  prejudices  of  rank  and  wealth. 
Nor  can  we  help  noting  the  number  of  Southern  men 
in  the  list  of  army  officers  at  this  time,  headed  by 
Scott  and  Taylor.  This  fact  will  have  its  por 
tentous  significance  for  Lincoln  and  the  Nation 
in  1861.  Already  it  had  been  observed  that  the 
South  largely  furnished  the  officers  of  the  United 
States  army,  while  the  North  furnished  largely, 
though  not  wholly,  the  rank-and-file.  This  may 
well  be  deemed  a  phase  of  the  split  already  setting 
in  between  the  aristocratic  and  the  democratic 
elements  of  the  land.  And  may  we  not  bring  out 
into  the  light  the  typical  fact  that  Lincoln,  chosen 
here  by  his  people  in  a  very  small  way,  but  here 
after  to  be  chosen  in  a  large  and  the  largest  way, 
now  first  appears  among  an  unchosen  but  perma 
nent  officialdom,  and  gets  the  experience  of  the 
most  undemocratic  yet  a  necessary  part  of  the 
American  government.  Such  experience  will  be 
stead  him  well  in  his  supreme  emergency. 

And  now  let  us  listen  to  another  and  even 
more  surprising  report  about  one  of  these  young 
Army-Lieutenants,  also  of  Southern  birth,  affable, 
of  fine  aristocratic  bearing,  and  very  talented, 
who,  it  is  declared,  mustered  into  the  service  of 
the  United  States  Abraham  Lincoln  and  his 


130         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

rather  democratic  company  for  the  Black  Hawk 
war: 

"Then  a  tall,  gawky,  slab-sided,  homely  young 
man,  dressed  in  a  suit  of  blue  jeans,  presented  him 
self  as  captain  of  a  company  of  recruits,  and  was 
sworn  in  by  Jefferson  Davis."  (Life  of  Davis  by 
his  wife,  Vol.  I,  p.  132, — written  of  course  after 
the  Civil  War). 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  first  oath  taken  by 
Lincoln  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  was  administered  to  him  by  Jefferson  Davis, 
future  President  of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  who 
had  taken  the  same  oath.  Which  of  the  two  kept  it 
best  is  a  question  upon  which  History  has  had  a 
good  deal  to  say,  and  upon  which  it  is  destined  to 
say  a  good  deal  more.  But  imagine  "tall,  gawky, 
slab-sided,  homely"  Abraham  Lincoln  holding  up 
that  enormous  hand  of  his  to  the  dapper,  well- 
groomed,  aristocratic  Jefferson  Davis  out  there  in 
the  backwoods  of  Illinois,  and  then  take  a  glimpse 
into  the  seeds  of  time  and  see  how  they  grow. 
Might  Davis,  as  he  looked  upon  that  awful  hand 
held  higher  than  his  head  and  backed  by  long, 
swinging,  scythe-like  arms  of  Destiny,  have  had 
some  far-off  presentiment  that  it  would  come 
down  upon  him  heavily  one  day  for  failure  to  ob 
serve  that  very  oath  which  he  was  then  administer 
ing?  Davis  with  his  friends,  as  the  world  knows, 
will  maintain  that  he  is  within  his  right  and  oath 
when  he  tries  to  break  up  the  Union  and  its  Consti- 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  131 

tution,  to  which  he  has  sworn  allegiance;  let  us 
not  argue  with  him ;  still  the  Big  Hand  will  descend 
like  Fate  and  crush  his  Idea,  but  not  him  for 
tunately,  for  who  is  not  glad  that  he  lived  to  tell 
the  tale  of  his  deeds  in  his  own  way,  to  his  heart's 
content?  And  let  us  add  that  Lincoln  would  be 
the  first  to  excuse,  yea  to  laugh  at  the  above-cited 
words,  rather  disparaging  in  tone  but  not  untrue 
literally,  of  the  amiable  biographer  who  so  forc 
ibly  expresses  her  aristocratic  contempt  for  the 
colossal  antagonist  of  her  husband. 

Let  it  now  be  added  that  the  foregoing  incident 
is  not  capable  of  documentary  proof,  though  prob 
able.  The  muster-roll  of  Lincoln's  company  is 
not  on  file  at  the  Adjutant-General's  office  where 
it  ought  to  be.  Moreover  the  record  shows  that 
Jefferson  Davis  had  a  furlough  from  March  26th, 
to  August  18th,  1832,  which  covers  the  time  of 
Lincoln's  service.  Hence  the  doubt  as  to  their 
meeting.  But  according  to  the  evidence  of  Davis 
himself  confirmed  by  many  volunteers  of  the  Black 
Hawk  campaign  who  saw  him  and  recollect  him, 
he  must  have  been  there,  doubtless  hastening  back 
to  service  when  the  war  broke  out.  This  is  not  only 
probable,  but  a  young  Lieutenant  could  hardly 
do  otherwise;  not  only  he  but  his  fellow-officers 
and  also  his  own  soldiers  in  the  ranks  would  say 
that  it  was  no  time  "to  be  absent  on  furlough." 
Mrs.  Davis  doubtless  reports  the  recollection  of 
her  husband.  So  we  can  say:  not  directly  prov- 


132         ABRAHAM  LIXCOLX—PART  FIRST. 

able  but  probable  is  the  unique  scene  of  towering 
Abraham  Lincoln  holding  up  his  gigantic  hand  to 
and  perchance  over  Jefferson  Davis  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States. 

VI. 
Candidate  Lincoln. 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  Lincoln  had 
announced  himself  as  a  candidate  for  representa 
tive  in  the  Illinois  Legislature  when  his  election 
eering  was  suddenly  interrupted  by  the  Black  Hawk 
war.  Moreover  he  had  issued  "an  Address  to  the 
People  of  Sangamon  County''  in  order  to  make 
known  "my  sentiments  in  regard  to  local  affairs/' 
national  affairs,  such  as  tariff  and  bank,  being 
omitted.  This  manifesto  is  interesting  from  several 
points  of  view.  In  style  it  is  carefully  written, 
and  on  the  whole  well  worded,  even  if  a  little  stiff 
for  Lincoln,  for  there  is  not  a  joke  in  it,  nor  a  streak 
of  humor  to  our  perception;  no  anecdote,  no  story, 
only  one  little  mental  grimace.  This  is  not  the 
mimic  Lincoln  of  the  country-store,  of  the  street- 
corner,  of  the  stump;  he  feels  that  he  must  now  be 
dignified  and  formal  like  other  empty-pated  figure 
heads  who  are  running  for  the  Legislature.  The 
piece  was  probably  corrected  in  grammar  and  style 
by  the  schoolmaster,  Mentor  Graham;  McXamar, 
the  betrothed  of  Ann  Rutledge,  claimed  likewise 
to  have  had  a  hand  in  correcting  it.  Upon  its  com- 


CANDIDATE  LINCOLN.  133 

position  as  the  first-born  writ  of  his  political  career 
the  young  author  must  have  spent  a  good  deal  of 
labor;  also  he  could  not  help  reading  it  with  a  cer 
tain  delight  to  all  his  friends,  who  of  course  admired 
it.  At  their  urgent  request,  no  doubt,  to  which 
he  bashfully  but  joyfully  yielded,  it  was  printed 
in  the  form  of  a  hand-bill  and  scattered  over  San- 
gamon  County,  with  no  small  expectations  of  its 
powerful  effect  upon  the  voters. 

As  with  this  candidacy  the  political  life  of  Lin 
coln  opens,  so  with  this  Address  he  begins  to  use 
the  Printed  Page  to  further  his  political  purpose. 
Already  in  Indiana  it  is  said  that  some  of  his  juve 
nile  articles  had  been  published  in  newspapers. 
But  the  road  on  which  he  now  starts  he  never  aban 
dons  till  death  itself  halts  him.  This  product  is 
properly  his  first  appeal  to  the  Folk-Soul  to  make 
him  their  lawgiver,  their  representative,  their 
mediator.  As  yet  the  field  is  small,  and  the  issue 
not  so  important,  but  the  one  will  widen  till  it  em 
braces  the  whole  country,  and  the  other  will  grow 
till  it  becomes  not  only  national  but  world-histor 
ical. 

What,  then,  were  the  main  points  of  this  first 
Address?  As  before  said  it  purposely  avoids  na 
tional  topics,  and  confines  itself  to  local  questions, 
(1)  He  dwells  particularly  upon  the  need  of  inter 
communication,  and  hence  puts  great  stress  upon 
internal  improvements  of  which  the  supreme 
example  is  the  Sangamon.  This  river  will  open  a 


134         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

connection  with  the  Illinois,  with  the  Mississippi, 
with  the  Gulf,  with  the  Ocean,  with  the  World. 
Such  was  the  grand  outlook  which  Lincoln  unrolls 
to  the  New  Salemites,  who  voted  for  him  almost 
to  a  man,  without  regard  to  party.  Lincoln  gives 
soberly  the  details  how  the  channel  can  be  cleared 
of  drift,  straightened  by  a  little  digging,  deepened 
by  a  little  dredging — and  then  we  have  a  navigable 
stream  just  for  a  small  appropriation.  Still  the 
whole  scheme  was  chimerical,  there  was  not  enough 
water  falling  from  Heaven  into  the  valley  of  the 
Sangamon  to  float  any  regular  traffic.  Though 
New  Salem  voted  it  up,  the  county  as  a  whole 
voted  it  down.  (2)  The  Address  grapples  with 
another  popular  question — the  limitation  of  the 
rate  of  interest.  The  farmers  were  oppressed  by 
usurers  and  were  crying  for  relief  by  means  of  legis 
lation — a  very  old  remedial  method.  Now  Lincoln 
knew  that  any  legal  restraint  upon  interest  would 
simply  increase  the  burden  to  those  who  most 
needed  help.  And  yet  he  favors  a  law  which  will 
work  both  ways :  it  is  to  be  evaded  in  extreme  cases, 
but  otherwise  is  to  be  enforced.  Thus  our  fledg 
ling  of  a  legislator  will  enact  a  law  wherein  "  means 
can  always  be  found  to  cheat  the  law,"  and  yet  to 
execute  it  also.  So  our  Lincoln  in  his  legislative 
capacity  proposes  to  ride  two  horses  at  once  run 
ning  in  opposite  directions.  Let  him  be  beaten 
at  the  polls,  decree  the  Powers,  and  set  him  to 
studying  the  law  before  he  starts  to  making  it,  for, 


CANDIDATE  LINCOLN.  135 

to  say  the  least,  his  ignorance  of  it  is  fundamental. 
We  may  note,  however,  that  this  patent  reversible 
gimcrack  of  a  law  which  is  made  to  turn  itself  in 
side  out  and  still  to  go  on  working,  drops  away 
from  Lincoln's  career  henceforth.  (3)  The  Ad 
dress  says  a  good  word  for  education  "as  the  most 
important  subject  which  we  as  a  people  can  be 
engaged  in."  One  thinks  that  he  sought  to  give 
the  coming  generation  a  better  chance  than  he 
ever  had.  His  chief  argument  is  noteworthy,  in 
view  of  his  own  past,  urging  "that  every  man  may 
be  enabled  to  read  the  histories  of  his  own  and  other 
countries,  by  which  he  may  duly  appreciate  the 
value  of  our  free  institutions,"  whose  safety,  indeed, 
depends  upon  the  Printed  Page,  nor  does  he  omit 
the  advantage  of  "all  being  able  to  read  the  Scrip 
tures  for  themselves,"  though  this  is  put  second 
in  line.  (4)  There  is  a  personal  touch  in  the  final 
paragraph  which  declares  his  highest  ambition  to  be 
"that  of  being  truly  esteemed  of  my  fellow-men, 
by  rendering  myself  worthy  of  their  esteem." 
Certainly  this  gives  a  little  glimpse  into  Lincoln's 
earliest  aspiration,  though  "I  was  born  and  have 
ever  remained  in  the  most  humble  walks  of  life." 
That  is  Lincoln,  the  rise  from  the  very  bottom 
to  the  highest  summit  of  the  nation  and  of  the  age. 
Then  a  last  word  of  resignation:  "But  if  the  good 
people  in  their  wisdom  shall  see  fit  to  keep  me  in 
the  background,  I  have  been  too  familiar  with  dis 
appointments  to  be  much  chagrined."  As  we 


136        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

understand  him,  he  rather  forbodes  defeat,  still 
he  is  going  to  take  his  first  plunge  into  the  Ocean 
of  the  People,  the  vast  protoplasmic  mass,  in  which 
his  real  work  lies,  and  which  he  is  to  inform  with 
its  supreme  world-historical  purpose.  (The  whole 
Address  is  given  in  Lincoln's  Works,  by  Nicolay 
and  Hay,  being  the  first  printed  piece  of  his  com 
position). 

So  our  modern  Homeric  hero  returns  from  his 
exploits  in  the  Black  Hawk  war  and  asks  his  fel 
low-citizens  to  elect  him  Captain  in  an  entirely 
new  vocation.  He  wishes  to  start  in  his  civil 
career,  which  is  really  the  one  of  his  heart,  and 
which  will  give  him  his  life-task.  He  will  in  time 
get  to  be  commander-in-chief,  military  indeed, 
but,  what  is  much  more  significant,  supra-mili 
tary,  commanding  war  itself,  if  need  be,  against 
war,  and  winning  rather  the  most  positive  victory 
of  the  age.  So  it  befell  that  Lincoln,  after  his  dis 
charge  from  military  service  on  the  border  against 
the  barbarians,  returned  directly  to  peaceful, 
idyllic  New  Salem,  now  the  lodestone  of  his  career 
for  a  number  of  reasons  public  and  private,  being 
acclaimed  the  hero  of  the  village  by  a  new  deed  of 
fame  with  its  fresh  sprig  of  laurel.  He  reached 
the  much  desired  spot  in  August,  1832,  having 
been  absent  since  his  enlistment  in  the  preceding 
April.  This  was  his  three  months'  service  and 
may  have  vaguely  suggested  the  period  of  his  first 
call  for  volunteers  in  1861.  He  renewed  his  can- 


CANDIDATE  LINCOLN.  137 

didacy  for  the  Legislature  already  announced,  and 
his  captaincy  in  the  Black  Hawk  war  must  have 
been  a  stirring  item  in  his  electioneering  capital. 

In  connection  with  Lincoln's  candidacy  we  have 
to  chronicle  a  new  and  very  exhilarating  event  in 
the  life  of  New  Salem  which  helped  raise  the  delu 
sion  of  a  navigable  Sangamon  to  the  boiling  point 
of  delirium.  The  incident  occurred  a  little  while 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and 
Lincoln  took  part  in  the  excitement,  proclaiming 
as  his  chief  political  tenet  the  improvement  of  the 
Sangamon,  to  the  unstinted  applause  of  his  fellow- 
villagers.  And  behold!  what  is  this  which  appears 
to  them  gathered  on  their  bluff  and  peering  down 
the  river?  In  the  early  spring  of  1832  they  see  an 
actual  steamboat  puffing  up  the  stream  at  high 
flood  to  New  Salem,  and  then  pushing  on  to  a  land 
ing  near  Springfield.  The  latter  place  gave  a 
grand  reception  and  ball  at  the  court  house  to  the 
bold  sailors  who  had  brought  the  vessel  all  the  way 
from  Cincinnati.  The  Talisman,  for  such  was  its 
magical  name,  evoked  great  excitement  along  the 
Sangamon  Valley,  and  had  the  power  of  putting 
the  inhabitants  under  a  spell  of  blinding  enchant 
ment,  causing  them  to  lose,  if  not  their  eye-sight, 
at  least  their  mind-sight.  In  a  week  the  high 
waters  were  running  out  and  the  boat  had  to 
hurry  down  stream,  reaching  the  Illinois  river  with 
great  difficulty,  chiefly  through  the  dexterity  of  its 
two  pilots,  one  of  whom  was  Lincoln.  It  too  had 


138        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

trouble  at  Rutledge's  dam  like  the  flat-boat.  He 
had  also  assisted  in  bringing  it  up  stream,  so  that 
he  was  becoming  well  acquainted  with  the  channel 
of  the  Sangamon — knowledge  which  he  will  soon 
bring  into  play.  Indeed  he  had  already  studied 
the  stream  with  care,  as  we  see  by  his  first  political 
document,  already  considered. 

Let  the  outcome  of  the  election  be  stated  as  far 
as  it  interests  us:  Candidate  Lincoln  is  defeated. 
In  both  his  autobiographic  notices  he  declares 
with  just  pride  that  this  was  the  only  time  he  was 
ever  beaten  by  the  people.  His  further  declara 
tion  runs;  "His  own  precinct,  however,  casting 
its  votes,  277  for  him  and  7  against  him,"  evidenced 
his  popularity  at  New  Salem,  and  especially  that 
of  his  cause,  the  improvement  of  the  Sangamon. 
But  the  rest  of  the  county  thought  otherwise,  for 
the  Sangamon  could  not  wash  every  man's  farm, 
nor  float  a  steamboat  to  every  village.  Moreover 
it  was  a  Presidential  year  (1832)  in  which  a  straight 
ticket  is  usually  voted  by  both  parties.  Lincoln 
had  become  a  Henry  Clay  Whig,  though  he  seems 
to  have  been  a  Jackson  man  or  (boy)  in  1828.  Hence 
he  says  with  pardonable  self-gratulation:  "the  pre 
cinct  the  autumn  afterward  gave  a  majority  of 
115  to  General  Jackson  over  Mr.  Clay." 

On  the  whole  this  judgment  of  the  People  in 
defeating  Lincoln  this  time  will  have  to  be  affirmed. 
That  double-acting,  reversible  law  of  usury  was  a 
poor  recommendation  for  a  legislator.  The  San- 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  LAW.  139 

gamon  cannot  be  made  a  navigable  stream,  improve 
it  as  we  may,  on  account  of  a  primary  deficiency  of 
the  fluid  which  floats  vessels,  even  if  it  has  floated 
Lincoln  into  New  Salem,  its  greatest  act  of  naviga 
tion.  "  Go  back,  go  back  to  your  studies,  especially 
to  the  study  of  the  law,"  cries  the  Genius  presiding 
over  his  destiny,  "and  I  shall  whirl  down  to  you 
out  of  the  Heavens,  an  unexpected  book,  nothing 
less  than  the  greatest  preparatory  law-book  ever 
written,  through  which  you  can  begin  to  get  your 
self  ready  for  your  coming  vocation."  Lincoln 
could  not  help  obeying  as  the  pressure  of  stern 
necessity  lay  upon  him;  but  let  our  reader  weigh 
the  miraculous  message,  awaiting,  with  some  ex 
pectancy  and  possibly  with  no  little  dubitation, 
the  fulfilment  of  its  promise,  which  is  now  to  be 
recounted. 

VII. 

The  Book  of  the  Law. 

A  new  Book  which  we  may  call  theBook  of  the 
Law,  is  in  these  days  delivered  into  the  hands  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  not  exactly  by  the  Supreme 
Giver  in  person,  as  long  ago  happened  to  the  old 
Hebrew  legislator  on  Mount  Sinai,  but  in  a  way 
which  we  may  call  Chance,  if  we  like,  or  if  we  are 
religiously  inclined,  Providence.  Let  it  not  be 
forgotten  that  Lincoln  has  often  been  hailed  the 
new  Moses  by  people  strongly  imbued  with  the 
Old  Testament,  chiefly  for  his  leadership  of  the 


140       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  — PART  FIRST. 

black  race  out  of  their  bondage,  and  also  of  the  white 
race  to  a  higher  freedom.  And  a  chief  hand  he 
certainly  took  in  bringing  forth  a  new  Law  and 
transformed  Constitution  for  his  country. 

Some  four  years  and  more  have  passed  since  the 
Book  of  Institutions  dropped  into  his  Indiana  life, 
making  an  epoch  in  his  development.  But  that 
Book,  we  must  suppose,  he  had  to  leave  behind 
with  its  owner  when  he  migrated  to  Illinois.  Since 
then  he  has  seemingly  done  very  little  legal  reading, 
so  deeply  occupied  has  be  been  with  his  river- 
nymph,  Sangamona,  with  the  alarms  of  war,  with 
the  game  of  politics,  with  the  ups  and  downs  of 
that  feverish  settlement,  New  Salem.  One  gift 
of  his,  indeed,  that  of  story-telling,  has  been  al 
ways  in  demand,  and  has  largely  absorbed  his 
mind's  activity,  since  the  response  to  it  was  imme 
diate,  intoxicating,  triumphant.  But  really  his 
art  was  not  the  end  but  a  means,  existing  not 
for  its  own  sake,  but  to  be  an  instrument  of  his 
deeper  destiny.  So  he  must  be  turned  back  into 
the  serious  purpose  of  life,  which  was  that  he  be 
come  the  leader  of  his  people  to  a  new  institutional 
liberty.  A  little  too  much  drifting  freedom  he 
has  enjoyed  in  that  drifting  community  of  New 
Salem.  Indeed  in  a  number  of  ways,  econom 
ically,  politically,  yea,  intellectually,  he  has  almost 
drifted  to  zero,  to  downright  negation,  which  is 
finding  its  expression  in  his  skepticism.  But  upon 
such  a  world-view  falls  now  a  peculiar  experience 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  LAW.  141 

which  suggests  somewhat  of  a  supernal  Prevision 
over  him.  And  at  least  so  much  can  be  declared: 
a  new  Book  is  brought  to  him,  the  complement, 
yea,  the  fulfilment  of  that  Book  of  Institutions 
which  he  has  been  compelled  to  leave  behind  in 
Indiana. 

Some  few  months  after  his  political  defeat, 
probably  during  the  summer  of  1833,  a  man  in  a 
covered  wagon  with  family  and  household  effects 
drove  up  in  front  of  Lincoln's  store  and  begged 
him  to  buy  an  old  barrel  full  of  trumpery  for  which 
he  had  no  room  in  his  straitened  vehicle.  He  never 
said  what  it  contained,  and  Lincoln,  in  kindness  of 
heart,  bought  it,  paying  him,  "I  think,  half  a  dollar 
for  it."  The  man  who  was  apparently  moving  to 
the  West,  at  once  vanished  with  his  wagon  into 
vacuity,  having  fulfilled  in  his  passage  through 
New  Salem  his  considerable  part  in  determining 
the  career  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  For  when  the  bar 
rel  was  turned  upside  down  and  emptied  on  the 
floor  some  days  afterwards,  at  the  bottom  of  all 
the  rubbish  came  forth  a  complete  edition  of  Black- 
stone's  Commentaries,  just  the  book  of  all  others 
needful  for  his  next  step  at  that  time.  A  most 
valuable  and  unexpected  prize  had  been  secreted 
in  that  old  barrel,  and  brought  to  New  Salem  by 
some  unknown  hand,  and  delivered  to  Lincoln  in 
person — what  shall  we  say  to  it?  A  fortunate 
accident  men  would  call  it  now,  having  little  faith 
in  the  Gods;  but  may  it  please  the  reader  to  look 


142       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST, 

back  again  at  old  Homer  (as  already  we  have 
glimpsed  old  Moses),  who  would  surely  say  that 
such  an  occurrence  came  from  above,  being  the 
work  of  Pallas  Athena,  who  in  the  guise  of  a  stran 
ger  appeared  to  the  man  in  the  wagon  with  the 
mysterious  barrel,  and  constrained  him  by  divine 
command  to  dispose  of  it  at  the  store  in  the  vil 
lage  for  fifty  cents.  Thus  the  Goddess  is  seen  to 
be  always  looking  out  for  her  special  ward,  Tele- 
machus  Lincoln,  and  now  provides  for  him  at  the 
right  moment  the  right  kind  of  Printed  Page  in 
the  slack  days  of  New  Salem. 

Lincoln  himself  knew  well  the  value  of  the  prize 
he  had  drawn  in  this  strange  lottery  of  the  Gods, 
providential  enough  to  rouse  a  ground-swell  of 
that  superstition  which  the  illuminated  biog 
rapher  has  so  often  traced  somewhat  con 
descendingly  in  his  character.  Still  the  reporter  of 
the  foregoing  occurrence  has  not  told  these  inner 
and  deeper  surges  of  Lincoln's  soul  seldom  break 
ing  out  to  the  surface  in  speech,  but  has  preserved 
his  own  statement  of  the  mighty  outward  impact 
which  he  received  from  the  new-found  book:  "I 
began  to  read  those  famous  works,  and  I  had 
plenty  of  time,  for  during  the  long  summer  days, 
when  the  farmers  were  busy  with  their  crops,  my 
customers  were  few  and  far  between.  The  more  I 
read,  the  more  intensely  interested  I  became. 
Never  in  my  whole  life  was  my  mind  so  thoroughly 
absorbed.  I  read  until  I  devoured  them."  Truly 


THE  BOOK  OF   THE  LAW.  143 

it  is  the  right  book  fallen  as  it  were  out  of  the  skies 
at  the  right  moment ;  it  is  as  a  whole  appropriated, 
internalized,  made  an  integral  element  of  his  in 
tellectual  equipment  for  the  future,  he  having 
plenty  of  leisure  just  now  for  the  task. 

And  yet  Blackstone 's  Commentaries  is  not  such 
an  easy  book  to  master.  It  reads  not  like  the 
newspaper  or  novel,  and  there  is  a  good  deal  of  it. 
But  we  see  that  Lincoln  was  prepared.  We 
recollect  how  he  read  the  Revised  Statutes  of  Indi 
ana  back  on  Little  Pidgeon  Creek,  and  the  import 
ant  political  and  legal  documents  therewith  pub 
lished.  Such  was  his  introduction  to  the  law  and 
its  peculiar  nomenclature.  That  book  however, 
was  confined  to  the  United  States  and  their  Ameri 
can  origins.  But  in  Blackstone  he  reaches  back  to 
their  remoter  source  in  English  law  and  history — a 
vast  widening  of  his  horizon.  He  now  has  come 
to  the  well-head  of  his  country's  Institutions,  and 
drinks  of  it  with  intense  delight.  For  Lincoln  had 
a  genetic  mind,  truly  creative  on  its  political  side; 
in  Blackstone  he  could  feed  his  creativity  witness 
ing  and  re-creating  in  thought  the  birth  and  devel 
opment  of  the  institutional  world  that  lay  about 
him.  Perchance  he  could  see  the  original  fountain 
of  those  Indiana  Statutes,  for  they  were  all  made 
by  men  trained  in  Blackstone  and  the  English 
Law.  Surely  a  divinely  sent  gift  of  Pallas  Athena, 
be  it  given  at  Ithaca  or  at  New  Salem,  we  may 
deem  this  Book  of  the  Law. 


144       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

And  let  us  behold  Lincoln  absorbed  in  his  Black- 
stone,  lying  on  the  village  green  during  the  hot 
days  of  summer  in  the  shade  of  a  tree,  not  far  from 
his  store,  this  being  allowed  to  take  care  of  itself, 
which  it  can  easily  do,  having  almost  no  custom. 
Upon  his  back  he  often  reposes  with  his  bare  feet 
stuck  up  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  his  favorite  atti 
tude  for  concentration.  Reports  an  observer: 
"His  tow-linen  pantaloons  I  thought  about  five 
inches  too  short  in  the  legs,  and  frequently  he  had 
but  one  suspender,  no  vest  or  coat.  He  wore  a 
calico  shirt,"  and  on  his  head,  when  he  arose,  was 
slouched  "a  straw  hat,  old  style,  without  any 
band."  Very  unconventional  and  regardless  of 
the  outer  world  must  our  Lincoln  have  been  while 
immersed  in  the  study  of  his  new  Book  of  the  Law. 
He  would  read  and  recite  to  himself  while  walk 
ing  to  and  from  Springfield,  out  of  the  Printed 
Page  before  him;  when  darkness  came  on,  he  would 
go  to  the  cooper's  shop,  the  friendly  owner  having 
given  permission  to  make  a  fire  with  the  refuse 
shavings,  by  whose  light  he  would  read  "far  into 
the  night."  Amid  his  duties  he  would  seize  his 
book  if  leisure  came  to  him,  were  it  only  "five  min 
utes'  time." 

The  strange  epiphany  of  this  Book  of  the  Law 
dropping  directly  upon  Lincoln's  path,  evidently 
threw  a  mighty  influence  over  him,  recalling  in  a 
kind  of  admonition,  and  emphasizing  vividly  the 
goal  of  his  career,  so  that  he  starts  out  afresh  toward 


LINCOLN  IN  BUSINESS.  145 

it,  with  an  ever-renewing  zest  and  tireless  industry. 
In  one  direction  at  least  he  begins  to  get  settled 
in  that  unsettled  New  Salem. 

(The  preceding  account  is  derived  from  the  St. 
Louis  artist,  Mr.  A.  J.  Conant,  to  whom  Lincoln 
told  the  story,  while  sitting  for  his  portrait  in  1860. 
See  Miss  Tarbell's  Life  of  Lincoln,  I,  p.  93.  It 
should  be  added  that  there  is  another  report,  ac 
cording  to  which  Lincoln  borrowed  his  Blackstone 
from  the  lawyer  of  a  neighboring  town.  Indeed 
two  borrowings  of  the  work  from  two  different 
men,  each  of  a  different  town,  have  become  cur 
rent  in  the  Folk-Lore  about  the  early  Lincoln  in 
Illinois,  ever  getting  more  diversified  and  diver 
gent). 

VIII. 

Lincoln  in  Business. 

Indeed!  Now  it  may  be  predicted  that  our 
"piece  of  floating  driftwood/'  having  drifted  into 
business,  will  get  anchored  at  last,  or  will  make  of 
it  a  drifting  business  and  float  soon  into  bankruptcy, 
particularly  in  that  village,  itself  adrift.  Still 
another  shifting  part,  then,  Lincoln  has  to  play 
during  these  variegated  years,  1832-4,  in  addition 
to  those  parts  already  mentioned — boat-man,  clerk, 
athlete,  soldier,  fabulist  and  the  rest;  it  is  said  that 
he  even  went  back  to  rail-splitting  for  a  while  dur 
ing  this  time.  But  now  he  is  to  become  a  merchant 
without  money,  a  capitalist  without  capital,  and 

in 


146        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

live  another  chapter  in  his  Book  of  Experience  al 
ready  getting  bulky. 

Lincoln's  political  defeat  was  probably  the  best 
thing  for  him  at  the  time;  he  was  not  yet  ready  to 
go  to  the  State  Legislature,  so  the  presiding  Powers 
turned  him  back  to  study  and  greater  maturity. 
Yet  he  must  find  something  to  do,  having  no  occu 
pation  and  no  work  after  the  election.  He  evi 
dently  liked  clerking  in  a  store  for  its  many  oppor 
tunities  of  seeing  people,  of  practising  his  gifts  of 
discussion  and  story-telling,  and  specially  for  the 
leisure  it  gave  him  to  continue  his  reading.  But 
there  was  no  appreciative  Offut  to  hire  him  in  any 
one  of  the  four  stores  of  the  place.  It  was  suggested 
that  he  become  a  blacksmith,  for  which  nature  had 
fitted  him  by  his  great  strength  and  by  the  wide 
swing  of  his  arms  for  wielding  the  sledge  hammer. 
But  it  has  been  handed  down  that  Lincoln  did  not 
take  kindly  to  hard  labor ;  an  old  farmer  said  he  was 
no  hand  to  pitch  into  work  "like  killing  snakes;" 
he  preferred  to  be  inwardly  occupied.  The  country 
store  as  the  center  of  the  village  is  his  true  place; 
in  a  store  he  must  be  and  so  at  last  he  succeeds  in 
buying  one  by  simply  giving  his  promissory  note. 
Since  he  could  not  be  clerk,  he  was  going  to  be  pro 
prietor. 

Thus,  however,  he  ventures  upon  a  new  and 
treacherous  sea,  that  of  indebtedness,  of  which  he 
is  to  have  many  a  bitter  experience.  But  it  was  so 
easy  at  the  start  to  get  things  without  paying  for 


LINCOLN  IN  BUSINESS.  147 

them,  he  being  quite  unconscious  of  the  day  of 
reckoning.  So  easy  was  it  that  he  buys  two  other 
stores  on  credit,  whose  owners  wished  to  get  rid  of 
them — not  a  good  sign  of  the  town's  prosperity 
or  of  his  coming  success.  A  partner  too,  he  picks 
up,  by  the  name  of  Berry,  who  had  no  good  name 
in  the  community,  being  a  dissipated  and  riotous 
young  fellow.  The  firm  of  Lincoln  &  Berry  had 
acquired  a  considerable  stock  of  liquors  of  which 
the  junior  partner  was  the  chief  salesman  and  best 
customer.  Lincoln,  very  temperate  in  his  habits, 
never  tasting  strong  drink  or  even  using  tobacco, 
not  only  found  leisure  but  created  it  for  his  studies, 
at  the  expense  of  strict  attention  to  business. 
He  scoured  the  neighborhood  for  books,  and  got 
hold  of  a  Rollin  and  a  Gibbon,  which  he  read  while 
with  Berry.  If  he  mastered  those  two  works,  he 
certainly  gained  no  contemptible  outfit  in  Ancient 
History.  The  great  states  and  the  great  person 
ages  of  Greece  and  Rome  had  at  least  been  intro 
duced  to  him.  We  may  query  whether  the  skep 
tical  tendency  which  he  showed  about  this  time 
was  fed  by  Gibbon's  famous  chapters  against 
Christianity.  To  Gibbon  may  be  added  the 
other  great  disbelievers  of  the  Eighteenth  Century: 
the  Frenchmen  Voltaire  and  Volney,  and  the 
American  Tom  Paine,  writings  of  all  of  whom  are 
declared  to  have  fallen  into  Lincoln's  hands  at  this 
time,  and  to  have  been  the  subject  of  discussions 
at  the  store  and  tavern,  Lincoln,  of  course,  tak- 


148       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  — PART  FIRST. 

ing  part,  and  even  writing  the  book  already  alluded 
to. 

We  have  to  infer  that  he  was  not  a  good  store 
keeper.  The  establishment  evidently  fell  in  twain, 
the  drinking  department  being  presided  over  by 
Berry,  and  the  story-telling  department  conducted 
by  Lincoln.  The  latter,  however,  was  always 
grasping  after  something  to  be  learned.  So  we 
must  set  down  that  in  these  days  Lincoln  had 
plenty  of  time  to  go  a-fishing  with  Jack  Kelso, 
an  incessant  spouter  of  Burns  and  Shakespeare, 
for  whose  beauties  he  had  a  genuine  appreciation. 
Otherwise  Jack  is  reported  to  have  been  a  shiftless 
vagabond,  living  by  little  odd-jobs,  and  chiefly 
by  sponging  on  the  charitable,  notably  on  Lincoln. 
But  he  is  the  man  who  has  come  down  to  us  as  hav 
ing  inducted  Lincoln  into  a  new  poetic  world  quite 
different  from  anything  which  he  had  previously 
known.  Particularly  Shakespeare  will  remain  a 
companion  of  Lincoln  for  many  years.  Thus  our 
apprentice  seems  to  be  taking  quite  a  course  in 
History  and  Literature  while  store-keeping.  Novels 
too  he  read  with  delight,  having  a  decided  relish  for 
fiction.  Newspapers  were  also  within  his  reach, 
and  the  politician  devoured  them  with  avidity. 
Desultory  indeed  is  such  a  training,  but  it  has  the 
considerable  advantage  of  not  being  foisted  upon 
the  student,  who  in  the  present  case  makes  his 
college  course  as  he  goes  along,  selecting  his 
materials,  scanty  enough,  from  his  environment. 


LINCOLN  IN  BUSINESS.  149 

But  how  many  youths  would  be  equal  to  such  a 
task? 

Behold,  a  new  but  small  business  comes  to  him ; 
he  is  made  Postmaster  of  New  Salem,  May  7th, 
1833,  presenting  the  marvel  of  a  Whig  holding 
office  under  Democratic  Andrew  Jackson.  The 
mail  came  irregularly,  but  it  averaged  once  a  week, 
and  it  is  stated  that  "he  carried  the  office  around 
in  his  hat,"  which  remained  his  personal  receptacle 
for  letters  and  papers  through  life.  There  is  little 
doubt  that  Lincoln  took  the  office  for  the  sake  of 
the  opportunity  it  gave  him  of  reading  the  current 
news  and  literature  of  the  day.  He  had,  it  seems, 
the  permission,  or  perchance  the  privilege  of 
perusing  the  printed  matter,  newspapers,  and  maga 
zines,  which  came  through  the  mails.  We  must 
recollect  the  political  excitement  of  this  time: 
nullification  in  South  Carolina,  and  her  conflict 
with  President  Andrew  Jackson;  great  speeches 
in  the  Senate  by  Webster  and  Calhoun,  oratorical 
protagonists  of  Union  and  Disunion;  the  contro 
versy  over  the  National  Bank;  the  discussion  of 
the  tariff  question.  So  we  may  see  Postmaster 
Abraham  Lincoln  when  the  mail  has  arrived,  care 
fully  removing  the  wrapper  from  every  newspaper, 
which  he  reads  and  then  puts  back  into  its  wrapper, 
depositing  it  in  his  Post  Office  Hat  for  delivery  to 
its  subscriber  who  may  live  miles  in  the  country. 
So  too,  he  treats  the  less  frequent  magazine,  and 
perchance  the  stray  paper-covered  novel  whose 


150       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

leaves  he  will  kindly  cut  for  its  owner.  Truly 
Lincoln  is  swallowing  his  whole  environment,  all 
its  knowledge,  all  its  vocations,  all  its  institutions; 
if  not  the  cosmic  egg,  at  least  the  New  Salem 
one  he  will  suck  dry,  no  doubt  to  the  neglect  of 
that  spirit-confining  business  of  his.  One  gap  in 
New  Salem  as  well  as  in  Lincoln,  must  be  marked: 
we  hear  of  little  or  no  music  in  their  existence,  ex 
cept  the  sweet  voice  of  Ann  Rutledge  who  was  a 
soulful  singer  of  ballads  and  hymns.  But  where 
is  the  village  fiddler  with  his  jigs,  reels,  hornpipes, 
from  the  " Devil's  Dream"  to  "Rory  O'Moore"? 
It  is  said  that  Lincoln  found  one  at  Vandalia  when 
he  went  there  as  representative,  and  was  charmed 
by  his  art.  Even  this  musician  has  been  hunted 
up  and  has  handed  in  his  report  from  which  we 
snip  a  shred:  "I  would  take  the  fiddle  with  me 
when  I  went  over  to  visit  him  (Lincoln,  in  his 
quarters  at  Vandalia)  and  when  he  grew  weary  of 
telling  stories,  he  would  ask  me  to  give  him  a  tune, 
which  I  never  refused  to  do." 

Lincoln  meanwhile  has  quite  abandoned  the 
store  to  Berry,  who  drank  himself  to  death  in  the 
business,  as  he  died  not  long  after.  The  stock  of 
groceries  had  run  low  and  was  sold  on  credit  to 
two  brothers,  both  scamps,  who  soon  absconded. 
The  result  of  Lincoln's  mercantile  career  was  a  pile 
of  debts  with  no  money  to  pay  them ;  all  the  accu 
mulated  obligations  of  the  business  for  two  years 
fell  to  his  share  in  the  end.  Thus  a  heavy  burden 


LINCOLN  IN  BUSINESS.  151 

was  put  upon  him  at  his  economic  start  in  life  and 
worried  him  for  many  years  before  it  was  paid,  for 
he  assumed  all  the  liabilities.  He  was  in  the  habit 
of  comparing  it  with  the  State  debt,  for  Illinois 
made  a  wild  venture  not  dissimilar  to  that  of  Lin 
coln  in  New  Salem,  who  will  help  the  whole  State 
do  what  he  did,  by  his  vote  in  the  Legislature — 
favoring  the  so-called  public  improvements,  such  as 
the  improvement  of  the  Sangamon. 

But  that  is  a  little  ahead  of  our  narrative.  At 
present  we  are  to  see  that  rock  of  Tantalus,  in  the 
shape  of  an  ever-threatening  debt,  which  Lincoln 
has  gotten  suspended  over  his  head  for  a  consider 
able  part  of  his  life-time  and  which  seems  always 
ready  to  fall  down  crushingly  upon  him  and  his — 
the  fateful  outcome  of  his  venture  in  merchantry  at 
New  Salem.  Says  his  partner,  Herndon:  "Even 
as  late  as  1848  he  sent  to  me  from  Washington  por 
tions  of  his  salary  as  Congressman  to  be  applied  on 
the  unpaid  remnant,  of  the  Berry  &  Lincoln  in 
debtedness/' — that  is,  fifteen  years  afterward,  and 
it  still  ran  on — "but  in  time  he  extinguished  it  all, 
even  to  the  last  penny."  Penitential  rock  of 
Tantalus  hung  in  mid  air  by  Zeus  over  the  mortal 
victim  for  his  transgression  the  old  Greek  poet 
Pindar  fabled  in  his  mythical  world,  and  sang  a 
strain  applicable  to  Lincoln  and  any  other  Tantalus 
overcanopied  with  debt:  "Therefore  shall  he 
be  forsaken  of  all  joy,  and  be  made  a  wanderer 
from  happiness." 


152        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

Once  indeed  a  piece  of  that  suspended  Tantalus 
rock  broke  loose,  fell  down  with  a  crash  and  smote 
him  to  the  earth  for  a  time,  in  the  shape  of  one  of 
those  promissory  notes  which  came  due  and  was 
not  paid.  Lincoln's  horse,  saddle  and  bridle,  and 
worst  of  all,  his  surveying  instruments,  by  which 
he  was  slowly  earning  his  economic  freedom,  were 
levied  upon,  seized  by  the  constable  and  exposed 
for  sale  to  the  highest  bidder.  But  kind-hearted 
Uncle  Jimmy  Short,  a  farmer  of  Sand  Ridge,  hear 
ing  of  the  trouble  and  feeling  the  impulse  to  be  a 
small  Providence,  hastened  to  the  rescue,  and  bought 
back  all  the  articles  at  the  sale  for  120  dollars, 
and  then  restored  them  to  the  owner.  But  many 
such  beetling  crags  still  hang  over  Lincoln's  head, 
minatory;  well  may  a  snake-like  anxiety  keep 
crawling  over  him,  lest  the  next  time  such  a  provi 
dential  interference  in  his  behalf  may  not  take 
place.  Let  it  be  added  that  Lincoln  when  Presi 
dent  rewarded  his  benefactor  with  a  small  office, 
which  the  latter  filled,  we  hope,  without  detri 
ment  to  the  public  service. 

IX 

The  Two  Calhouns. 

In  this  same  eventful  year,  1833,  two  gentlemen 
by  the  name  of  Calhoun,  became  interwoven  with 
the  course  of  Lincoln's  life.  Each  of  them  also 
was  called  John  Calhoun,  indeed  each  of  them  has 


THE  TWO  CALHOUNS.  153 

come  down  to  posterity  designated  as  John  C.  Cal- 
houn.  The  one  was  a  Southerner  and  belonged  to 
South  Carolina,  as  all  the  world  knows;  the  other 
was  a  Northerner,  in  fact  a  New  Englander  who 
had  migrated  to  Springfield,  Illinois.  Both,  how 
ever,  were  Democrats,  and  took  a  political  turn 
quite  opposite  to  that  of  Lincoln. 

First  we  shall  cast  a  glance  at  what  John  Cald- 
well  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina  was  doing.  On 
January  22,  1833,  two  days  after  the  introduction 
of  Jackson's  Force  Bill,  the  following  resolutions 
were  offered  by  Calhoun  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States : 

(1)  "Resolved    that   the    people    of  the   sev 
eral  States  comprising  these    United    States  are 
united  as  parties  to  a  Constitutional  Compact,  to 
which  each  State  acceded  as  a  separate  Sovereign 
community." 

Here  is  the  assertion  that  the  Union  is  a  Com 
pact  between  the  Single-States,  and  that  each 
Single-State  as  sovereign  took  part  in  the  Compact 
and  acceded  to  the  same  Now  it  is  this  view  of 
the  Union  which  Lincoln,  we  may  suppose,  begins 
already  in  1833  to  grapple  with  in  thought,  and 
which  he  is  at  last  to  meet  by  argument  and 
then  by  force  in  1861. 

(2)  "Resolved  that  the  people  of  the  several 
States    .     .    .    delegated  to  the  General  Govern 
ment  certain  definite  powers    .     .     .   and  that  the 
same  Government  is  not  made  the  final  judge  of 


154         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

the  powers  delegated  to  it  .  .  .  but  each  State 
has  the  right  to  judge  for  itself,  as  well  of  the  in 
fraction  as  of  the  mode  and  measure  of  redress." 

There  is  another  Resolution  to  the  same  general 
effect,  but  these  two  (somewhat  abbreviated  as 
they  stand  here)  tell  the  national  wrestle  of  the 
time,  and  show  the  idea  which  was  discussed  in 
all  the  newspapers,  and  on  the  street-corners  and 
in  the  village-stores  of  every  nook  of  the  land. 
The  Folk-Soul  is  struggling  over  the  question 
which  may  be  thus  stated:  Which  has  the  primacy 
in  our  form  of  Government:  the  Single-State  or 
the  Union?  Clearly  the  doctrine  of  Calhoun  as 
serts  the  primacy  of  the  Single-State,  which  has 
the  right  of  initiative  in  withdrawing  from  the 
Union,  or  the  right  of  Secession. 

Now  the  curious  fact  comes  to  the  surface  that 
it  is  just  this  problem  which  Lincoln  will  be  called 
upon  to  deal  with  when  he  enters  the  Presidency 
twenty-eight  years  later.  The  chief  burden  of  his 
first  Inaugural  (1861)  is  the  Primacy  of  the  Union: 
"No  State  of  its  own  mere  notion  can  lawfully  get 
out  of  the  Union."  One  may  be  permitted  to 
think  that  he  must  have  deeply  pondered  the 
subject  when  the  air  was  resounding  all  over  the 
land  with  the  words  of  Calhoun:  "each  State  has 
the  right  to  judge  for  itself"  in  disregard  of  the 
General  Government,  even  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States. 

It  should  be  added  that  the  ground  of  South 


THE  TWO  CALHOUNS.  155 

Carolina's  Nullification  in  1832  was  economical,  her 
dislike  of  the  tariff.  But  the  ground  of  her  Se 
cession  in  1860  was  based  openly  on  the  support 
of  Slavery.  Disunion  has  thus  in  the  intervening 
time  allied  itself  to  another  principle,  in  order 
that  both  be  destroyed  together,  chiefly  through  Lin 
coln.  In  answer  to  the  foregoing  Resolutions, 
Daniel  Webster  entered  the  Senatorial  arena 
against  Calhoun  with  a  speech,  which,  report  de 
clares,  was  consulted  by  Lincoln  in  the  preparation 
of  his  first  Inaugural.  There  is  little  doubt,  then, 
than  John  Caldwell  Calhoun  was  a  prominent 
factor  in  Lincoln's  early  political  training,  chiefly 
by  way  of  determent.  Clay's  Compromise  Tariff 
of  1833  caused  the  South  Carolina  trouble  to  sub 
side,  but  Lincoln  never  forgot  the  lesson.  And  on 
the  other  hand  the  South  never  forgot  Calhoun's 
teachings.  Thus  the  two  sides  of  the  Civil  War 
may  be  seen  emerging  dimly  before  the  mind  of 
Lincoln  in  1833  and  indeed  before  the  Nation 
itself. 

Well  may  the  reader  imagine  our  Lincoln  choos 
ing  his  seat  in  some  quiet  nook  and  "cocking  up 
his  legs  higherthanhis  head,"  after  which  prepara 
tory  act  he  takes  off  his  hat,  more  lucky  for  him 
than  the  wishing-cap  of  Fortunatus,  and  picks  out 
of  it  the  newspaper  from  some  large  city  contain 
ing  in  full  the  speeches  of  Calhoun  and  Webster 
upon  the  burning  question  of  the  hour.  Uncon 
sciously  they  open  up  before  him  a  sudden  vista 


156          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

of  his  own  future,  like  a  burst  of  sunlight  through 
the  intervening  clouds.  We  may  see  him  taking 
his  side  in  the  conflict  and  forming  his  first  resolu 
tion  then,  though  much  is  still  to  evolve  in  him 
and  in  the  Folk-Soul.  But  that  wonderful  Post 
Office  Hat  of  his — we  have  found  its  place  also  in 
his  Apprenticeship.  Still  there  is  no  money  in  it, 
and  none  can  be  shaken  out  of  it  by  the  deftest 
magician — and  Lincoln  has  reached  the  point  at 
which  he  must  have  a  little  money. 

And  now  we  pass  to  the  second  Calhoun  who  is 
also  a  politician  and  a  great  disputant  upon  his 
party's  policies;  his  field,  however,  is  not  the  Sen 
ate  of  the  United  States,  but  the  streets  and  stores 
of  Springfield,  Illinois,  with  spouting  excursions 
into  Sangamon  County,  which,  being  strongly 
Democratic,  has  elected  him  its  surveyor.  He  had 
heard  of  Lincoln,  and  for  some  reason,  was 
prompted  to  appoint  him,  though  a  Whig,  as  his 
deputy.  He  sent  a  messenger  to  New  Salem,  who 
found  Lincoln  in  the  woods  not  far  off  splitting 
rails — in  which  he  was  a  greater  adept  than  in 
keeping  store.  He  accepted  the  position,  as  there 
seemed  to  be  some  much-needed  money  in  it,  un 
der  condition  of  not  sacrificing  his  political  views 
or  their  expression.  Also  time  was  allowed  him  for 
learning  the  business,  as  he  did  not  know  survey 
ing. 

Thus  it  befell  in  the  year  1833  that  a  new  public 
office  dropped  into  Lincoln's  lap  (not  into  his  hat 


THE  TWO  CALHOUNS.  157 

this  time)  quite  unexpectedly,  that  of  assistant  to 
John  Calhoun,  the  county  surveyor,  who  had  an 
excess  of  business  at  this  juncture.  Calhoun  is  de 
clared  to  have  been  a  Yankee  and  seems  to  have 
been  no  relative  of  the  South  Carolinian  of  the 
same  name,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  was  making  a 
great  stir  in  the  nation  this  very  year  through  the 
Nullification  excitement.  Our  Illinois  Calhoun 
had  been  bred  to  the  law,  but  took  to  school- 
mastering  in  early  Springfield,  by  preference  it  is 
said,  in  which  vocation  he  showed  a  peculiar  ex 
cellence.  He  was  an  esteemed  citizen,  and  held 
public  offices  of  trust,  having  been  not  only  sur 
veyor  of  the  county  but  also  mayor  of  the  town. 
Herndon  gives  a  warm  eulogy  of  him  based  on 
personal  acquaintance,  putting  a  high  estimate 
both  on  his  character  and  ability.  He  cites  also 
Lincoln's  view  of  the  man:  "I  have  heard  Lincoln 
say  that  Calhoun  gave  him  more  trouble  in  his 
debates  than  Douglas  ever  did,  because  he  was 
more  captivating  in  his  manner  and  a  more  learned 
man  than  Douglas."  So  far  Herndon,  who,  how 
ever,  says  nothing  here  of  Calhoun's  later  Kansas 
career,  which  he  must  have  known,  but  like  a 
good  lawyer,  quietly  passes  over  as  not  altogether 
favorable  to  his  client's  side.  But  this  other  side 
must  not  be  wholly  left  out. 

Some  twenty-five  years  later  we  find  this  same 
John  Calhoun  in  Kansas  as  surveyor-general  of  the 
Territory,  then  in  the  deepest  throes  of  its  struggle 


158         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

with  the  slave-power.  From  surveying  he  passed 
into  politics,  and  has  come  down  to  us  not  only 
as  hostile  to  the  freedom  of  Kansas  but  as  the 
perpetrator  of  some  of  the  worst  partisan  frauds 
on  record.  A  Committee  of  the  Legislature,  get 
ting  on  track  of  his  fraudulent  returns  found  them 
secreted  in  a  candle-box  under  a  wood-pile  at  Le- 
compton  near  Calhoun's  office.  It  was  shown  that 
a  forged  list  of  379  votes  had  been  substituted  for 
the  original  memorandum  of  only  43  votes,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  pro-slavery  candidates.  From  this 
incident  the  wrathful  Kansans  re-baptized  him  as 
John  Candlebox  Calhoun,  under  which  name  he 
seems  destined  to  fill  his  little  place  in  History. 
They  caused  his  arrest,  but  he  was  liberated 
by  pro-slavery  Judge  Cato  on  habeas  corpus,  after 
which  he  took  a  bee-line  for  Missouri  and  thence 
to  Washington — not  to  Springfield,  where  his 
former  assistant  surveyor  Lincoln  was  preparing 
to  challenge  Douglas  and  to  take  his  first  great 
stride  toward  the  Presidency. 

Calhoun  was  also  presiding  officer  of  the  fraud 
ulent  Convention  which  concocted  the  political 
imposture  known  as  the  Lecompton  Constitution, 
which  gave  the  people  of  Kansas  so  much  trouble, 
and  which  he  seems  to  have  largely  devised  him 
self  apart  from  the  Convention.  Still  the  Lecomp 
ton  Constitution  of  Calhoun  was  supported  and 
probably  instigated  by  the  Buchanan  Administra 
tion  at  Washington.  Bad  work  is  this  for  our 


THE  TWO  CALHOUNS.  159 

Yankee  schoolmaster.  Then  it  would  seem  that 
Calhoun  tried  to  bribe  the  Kansas  Governor, 
Walker,  to  the  support  of  his  Constitution  by  the 
offer  of  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States,  which 
he  somehow  held  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  But 
note  the  fact  that  on  the  2nd  day  of  February, 
1858,  President  Buchanan  transmits  to  Congress 
the  Lecompton  Constitution  "received  from  J.  Cal 
houn  Esq.  duly  certified  by  himself,"  recommend 
ing  that  Kansas  be  admitted  as  a  Slave  State 
under  it. 

But  be  it  said  to  his  credit  that  he  befriended 
Lincoln  at  a  critical  moment  and  enabled  him  to 
earn  some  money  when  it  was  sorely  needed,  after 
his  total  business  collapse  at  New  Salem.  The 
kind  act  was  surprising  when  we  hear  that  a  Dem 
ocrat  bestowed  a  political  office  upon  an  avowed 
Whig  who  insisted  upon  maintaining  his  freedom 
of  opinion.  Still  more  surprising  does  Calhoun's 
procedure  seem  when  we  learn  that  Lincoln  had 
no  preparation  in  surveying,  and  had  to  start 
studying  it  with  Mentor  Graham,  the  New  Salem 
schoolmaster.  Calhoun  seems  to  have  provided 
him  with  a  text-book  on  surveying,  Flint  &  Gib 
son's,  and  to  have  waited  for  him  to  get  ready. 
Tradition  has  it  that  in  six  weeks7  time  Lincoln 
had  fairly  mastered  the  subject,  and  reported  for 
duty,  having  nearly  killed  himself  meanwhile  with 
studying. 

So  two  John  C.   Calhouns,  John   Caldwell  and 


160        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

John  Candlebox,  one  local,  and  the  other  national, 
get  spun  into  Lincoln's  life-thread  about  1833. 
Each  of  them  plays  his  peculiar  part  in  bolstering 
a  doomed  political  order,  to  which  Lincoln  mainly 
gives  the  final  blow.  Each  in  his  separate  sphere 
had  a  common  attitude;  each  took  his  stand 
against  the  movement  of  the  age.  Each  had  his 
little  tussle  with  the  World-Spirit,  and  of  course 
got  thrown.  In  contrast  to  both  Calhouns,  Lin 
coln  was  not  only  harmonious  with  his  time's  deep 
est  aspirations,  but  became  its  grand  representa 
tive  and  realizer,  of  course  when  the  pivotal 
moment  came  long  afterwards. 

Far  better  had  it  been  for  John  Candlebox  Cal- 
houn,  had  he  remained  a  blameless  and  fameless 
pedagogue  in  Springfield,  and  won  the  admiration 
of  grateful  pupils  like  Herndon,  who  calls  him  "a 
typical  gentleman — brave,  intellectual,  self-pos 
sessed  and  cultivated.  As  an  instructor  he  was 
the  popular  one  of  his  day  and  age.  I  attended 
the  school  he  taught  when  I  was  a  boy  .... 
Lincoln,  I  know  respected  and  admired  him." 
But  ambition  or  adventure  or  what  not  led  him  in 
a  fateful  moment  to  Kansas  where  he  has  won  a 
strange  historic  immortality,  as  if  his  were  the 
name  of  a  very  devil  who  sought  to  overthrow  the 
freedom  of  Kansas  through  a  fraud  resembling 
that  of  the  Father  of  Lies.  The  result  is  that 
to-day  the  average  Kansan,  having  still  the  ten 
dency  to  fight  afresh  the  old  battles  along  with 


THE  TWO  CALHOUNS.  161 

John  Brown's  soul  marching  on,  would  stand 
ready  at  any  minute  to  tackle  the  ghost  of  John 
Candlebox  Calhoun,  and  with  a  volley  of  execra 
tion  to  give  it  a  blow,  in  memory  at  least,  which 
would  hurl  it  down  to  Dante's  Inferno  amid  the 
spirits  forever  damned,  landing  it  in  the  big  Bulge 
or  infernal  Circle  of  sinners  fraudulent. 

But  the  biographer,  having  duly  noticed  his 
Kansas  career,  will  prefer  to  spend  the  last  remi 
niscence  upon  him  as  the  benefactor  of  Lincoln  at 
a  very  trying  moment.  For  the  poor  youth,  hav 
ing  failed  in  business,  being  overwhelmed  with 
debt,  and  having  no  remunerative  calling,  and 
worried  by  duns  and  demands  upon  him  from  his 
poverty-stricken  parents,  obtains  through  Cal 
houn,  not  then  Candlebox,  the  best-paying  subor 
dinate  position  in  Sangamon  County  probably,  for 
he  receives  three  dollars  a  day,  which  was  almost 
equal  to  the  pay  of  the  Governor  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  whose  salary  at  this  time  was  one  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  So  too  we  can  understand  biog 
rapher  Herndon  warmly  interceding  with  History 
to  spare  his  Springfield  Calhoun  and  forgetting 
to  say  anything  about  the  Kansas  Candlebox 
Calhoun,  though  the  latter  of  the  two  did  by 
far  the  more  famous  deed,  which  rose  for  a  little 
while  into  national  importance,  and  made  him  a 
small  speck  or  rather  a  blotch  on  the  page  of 

History. 

11 


162        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  — PART  FIRST. 

X. 

The  New  Salem  Solon. 

And  now  Lincoln,  having  done  many  Greek 
parts  of  a  lesser  heroic  cast  in  our  modern  Homeric 
village,  will  grapple  for  and  actually  reach  the 
highest — that  of  Lawgiver,  re-enacting  again  in  his 
way  great  men  of  old,  to  be  sure  without  knowing 
it.  Nor  will  he  make  laws  now  directly  for  the 
one  small  community  or  for  the  city-state  of 
antique  pattern,  as  did  Solon,  Lycurgus,  Demonax 
and  the  other  ancient  Lawgivers;  the  single  com 
munity  is  not  now  separate  and  autonomous,  but 
conjoined  into  a  larger  political  totality  (the  State) 
and  this  again  into  a  still  larger  (the  Federal 
Union) — an  institutional  order  unknown  to  the  old 
Hellenic  world.  Lincoln  is  chosen  to  sit  in  a  body 
of  lawmakers  from  every  part  of  Illinois,  and  he  is 
to  legislate  for  the  whole  State  and  not  merely  for 
his  little  village;  thus  he  begins  to  rise  out  of  the 
Community  into  the  Commonwealth,  yea,  out  of 
the  Commonwealth  he  is  to  expand  into  the 
Nation,  starting  from  that  small  transitory  dot 
called  New  Salem.  Such  an  outlook  we  may  trace 
in  him,  when  he  goes  forth  as  legislator  to  Vanda- 
lia,  Capital  of  the  State,  really  a  great  stride  on 
his  road  to  Washington,  which  road  is  the  inner 
connecting  line  of  his  whole  career. 

The  pertinacity  with  which  Lincoln  seeks  dur 
ing  his  whole  New  Salem  period  to  be  a  law-maker 


THE  NEW  SALEM  SOWN.  163 

or  member  of  the  law-making  body,  is  one  of  his 
salient  traits.  We  have  already  seen  how  that  in 
the  earliest  days  of  the  earliest  spring  month, 
March,  1832,  he  announced  himself  as  a  candidate 
for  the  Illinois  House  of  Representatives.  His  first 
glimpse  of  the  town  and  people  was  gotten  from 
his  flat-boat  lodged  there  on  the  dam  in  the  pre 
ceding  April.  Hardly  six  months  had  passed  since 
he,  returning  from  his  flat-boat  trip,  had  located 
in  the  village  as  Offut's  clerk.  Very  rapid  promo 
tion  was  that,  even  for  a  popular  youth.  A  con 
siderable  amount  of  self-confidence,  yea,  of  self- 
esteem,  shows  itself  in  such  a  bold  attempt,  which 
indeed  reveals  a  settled  strain  of  his  character. 
His  vocation,  which  was  to  deal  with  the  Law,  and 
with  the  State,  was  already  lustily  throbbing 
within  him  and  pushing  him  to  action. 

He  obtained  his  first  impulse  in  this  direction 
while  a  boy  in  Indiana,  by  hearing  political 
speeches,  which  usually  turned  on  some  legal  or 
constitutional  question,  by  attending  law-suits  be 
fore  the  squire  as  well  as  the  judge,  and  chiefly  by 
studying  the  Revised  Laws  of  Indiana,  with  the 
appended  documents — the  Book  of  Institutions 
whose  significance  in  the  development  of  Lincoln 
has  been  already  noted.  Little  opportunity  in 
Illinois  does  he  seem  to  have  had  as  yet  for  realiz 
ing  his  soul's  aspiration,  till  in  1832  it  suddenly 
burst  forth  in  his  candidacy.  Naturally  he  was 
then  beaten;  but  at  the  next  opportunity,  which 


164         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

has  now  come,  he  proposed  to  try  again  for  the 
same  prize. 

Accordingly,  in  the  year  1834,  the  time  for  a 
new  election  of  Legislators  has  arrived,  and  Lin 
coln  again  offers  himself  as  candidate.  He  is  now 
better  acquainted,  his  survey orship  has  brought 
him  in  contact  with  the  People  and  made  his  char 
acter  known.  Moreover,  he  is  much  better  pre 
pared;  in  his  Blackstone  he  has  conned  the  under 
lying  principles  of  Anglo-Saxon  legislation,  and 
studied  the  evolution  of  institutions.  Now  he 
seeks  to  take  a  practical  step  forward  in  order  to 
realize  his  theoretical  knowledge.  He  drives  an 
active  canvass,  in  which  he  makes  speeches,  tells 
stories,  and  even  shows  his  physical  superiority  in 
wrestling,  lifting  weights  and  cradling  grain.  He 
was  reaching  out  for  the  Folk-Soul  everywhere  and 
found  it.  He  was  elected  this  time  by  a  handsome 
majority — "by  the  highest  vote  cast  for  any  can 
didate,"  says  one  account  which,  however,  is  con 
tested.  But  one  thing  is  certain:  we  shall  never 
hear  again  of  anything  in  his  legislative  proposals 
like  that  double-acting,  reversible  law  of  usury, 
capable  of  being  enforced  or  violated  according  to 
the  necessities  of  justice,  which  law  he  had  pro 
posed  in  his  Address  two  years  before.  Let  us 
think  that  to  some  purpose  he  has  been  reading 
his  Blackstone. 

It  was  during  this  canvass  of  1834  that  another 
pivotal  opportunity  came  to  him,  that  of  studying 


THE  NEW  SALEM  SOWN.  165 

law.  The  voice  of  the  Goddess  this  time  spoke 
through  Major  John  T.  Stuart,  fellow-candidate 
now  and  once  fellow-soldier  in  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  also  a  Springfield  lawyer  in  good  practice. 
Lincoln,  in  autobiographic  third  person,  speaks  of 
him  thus:  "During  the  canvass  in  a  private  con 
versation  he  encouraged  Abraham  to  study  law. 
After  the  election  he  (Abraham)  borrowed  books  of 
Stuart,  took  them  home  with  him,  and  went  at  it 
in  good  earnest.  He  studied  with  nobody ;  mixed 
in  the  surveying  to  pay  board  and  clothing 
bills."  In  one  sense  Lincoln  had  been  study 
ing  law  a  good  while.  The  law-books  alluded  to 
in  the  foregoing  account  could  not  have  included 
Blackstone,  which  he  had  already  studied,  but 
were  the  more  professional  works,  as  Chitty's 
Pleadings,  Greenleaf  's  Evidence  and  Storey 's  Equity, 
all  of  which  he  recommended  later  to  a  young  man 
aspiring  to  become  a  lawyer.  Lincoln  had  already 
mastered  a  book  of  legal  forms  so  that  he  could 
draw  up  deeds,  contracts,  and  various  legal  instru 
ments,  for  which  work  he  was  soon  in  demand  at 
New  Salem  as  well  as  for  practicing  before  the 
local  squire. 

Outside  of  his  duties  as  legislator  and  surveyor 
the  study  of  the  law  must  have  been  his  chief  occu 
pation  for  the  two  following  years  (1834-6).  Says 
he  of  himself,  "When  the  Legislature  met,  the  law- 
books  were  dropped,  but  were  taken  up  again  at 
the  end  of  the  session."  As  surveyor  he  was  far 


166         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

more  successful  than  as  a  store-keeper,  though  he 
had  to  deal  with  the  most  sensitive  and  the  most 
grasping  part  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  character, 
namely  its  love  or  rather  greed  for  land.  When 
metes  and  bounds  had  to  be  re-ad  justed  and  corners 
placed  anew,  (the  early  United  States  surveys  were 
often  very  careless)  the  old  farmer  who  lost  a 
speck  of  soil  would  get  fighting-mad,  deeming  the 
whole  transaction  an  attempt  to  steal  his  land. 
Our  Quaker  Hercules  could  meet  him  in  the  tug  of 
war,  if  need  be;  but  Lincoln  had  a  reconciling 
spirit,  and  everybody  felt  his  justice.  Through 
him  such  altercations  ended  in  peace  rather  than  a 
fight  or  an  ugly  stake-and-rider  devil's  fence,  sign 
of  bitter  feud  between  adjoining  land-owners.  So 
great  was  his  success  in  this  ticklish  business,  and 
so  general  the  belief  in  his  fairness  that  the  country 
districts  of  Sangamon  County,  though  Democratic, 
rolled  up  a  heavy  vote  in  favor  of  the  Whig  can 
didate  for  the  Legislature  from  New  Salem. 

Accordingly  with  a  new  suit  of  clothes,  for  buy 
ing  which  he  had  to  borrow  the  money,  Lincoln 
sets  out  late  in  1834  for  the  Capitol  at  Vandalia, 
town  of  the  Vandals,  we  may  suppose  by  its  name. 
He  is  not  prominent  as  a  member,  he  is  learning, 
the  Legislature  is  for  him  a  school,  a  stage  of  his 
Apprenticeship.  He  becomes  trained  to  parlia 
mentary  usage.  He  gets  acquainted  with  the  po 
litical  leaders  from  every  part  of  the  State.  He 
sees  the  governmental  machine  working  at  its 


THE  NEW  SALEM  SOWN.  167 

center  with  its  threefold  powers — legislative,  exec 
utive,  judicial.  Constitutional  questions  he  hears 
discussed  by  able  lawyers.  In  fine  he  beholds 
what  he  had  hitherto  only  known  theoretically, 
become  the  practical  working  fact  before  his  eyes; 
what  he  once  read  in  his  Indiana  book  of  Statutes, 
he  sees  taking  on  the  reality  of  government. 

At  Vandalia  for  amusement  he  would  have  a 
story-telling  bee  of  good  fablers,  in  which  he  natur 
ally  took  the  chief  part  and  which  would  increase 
his  stock,  as  he  is  reported  to  have  noted  down  all 
the  best  stories  which  he  heard.  Then  Major 
Walker,  the  cat-gut  virtuoso,  would  appear  with 
his  fiddle,  and  give  the  company  a  tune,  a  rural 
sample  of  his  art  not  pitched  too  high  for  his 
listeners,  which  would  set  their  feet  to  stamping 
time,  and  perchance  to  a  shuffle  round  the  floor. 
But  amid  all  this  boisterous  sport  one  cannot  help 
peeping  into  the  depths  of  Lincoln's  heart  and 
glimpsing  the  agitation  there  at  this  date.  Well 
might  he  whisper  inwardly  at  the  sweet  sounds  of 
his  musical  visitor  a  line  of  Shakespeare's  lover 
voicing  his  own  deepest  emotion:  "If  music  be 
the  food  of  love,  play  on!"  For  Lincoln  had 
brought  to  Vandalia  this  year  the  deepest  passion 
of  his  life,  surging  around  a  fair  image  which 
could  never  have  been  absent  from  his  thoughts. 

And  then  behold!  another  figure  appears  at 
Vandalia  during  Lincoln's  first  session — never 
loved  by  him;  his  life's  competitor  and  counter- 


168          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

part,  verily  his  antitype  outside  and  inside,  phys 
ically  and  mentally.  For  the  first  time  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  comes  into  Lincoln's  horizon,  never 
wholly  to  pass  out  of  it  till  he  passes  beyond. 

XI. 

Lincoln  and  Douglas  (I). 

The  first  blow  in  the  long  and  at  times  desper 
ate  political  battle  between  the  Big  and  Little 
Giant,  as  the  twain  came  to  be  called  in  Illinois, 
was  struck  by  Lincoln  as  member  of  the  Legisla 
ture  at  Vandalia  in  1835.  He  cast  his  vote  against 
Douglas,  who  was  seeking  the  office  of  State's  at 
torney  of  his  judicial  district,  whom  the  Legisla 
ture  was  empowered  to  elect.  Douglas,  then  only 
twenty-two  years  old,  who  had  but  recently  come 
into  the  State,  and  more  recently  still  had  been 
admitted  to  the  bar,  was  seeking  his  first  public 
office,  and  possessed  already  the  valuable  gift  of 
blowing  his  own  horn.  For  he,  with  hardly  a 
year's  experience  of  the  law  to  his  credit,  was 
elected  over  his  rival,  John  J.  Hardin,  a  capable 
and  experienced  lawyer,  and  moreover,  a  popular 
man,  who  afterwards  fell  in  the  Mexican  War. 
Of  course  politics  had  much  to  do  with  the  elec 
tion,  as  Hardin  was  a  Whig  and  Douglas  a  Demo 
crat  appealing  to  a  Democratic  Legislature.  Still 
the  affair  shows  the  early  skill  of  Douglas  in  politi 
cal  manipulation,  for  he  had  to  meet  in  competi- 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (1).  169 

tion  old  war-horses  of  his  own  party.  The  selec 
tion,  however,  caused  a  good  deal  of  unfavorable 
comment,  especially  among  the  Judiciary.  An  old 
judge  (reported  by  Sheahan  in  his  Life  of  Douglas), 
exclaimed  indignantly:  "What  business  has  such 
a  stripling  with  such  an  office?  He  is  no  lawyer 
and  has  no  law-books."  Still  it  is  agreed  that 
Douglas  vindicated  himself  in  his  position,  for 
surely  he  was  not  wanting  in  capacity  for  the 
task. 

So  Douglas  opens  his  public  career  against  the 
vote  of  Lincoln,  who  saw  him  active  in  the  lobby, 
which  already  constituted  the  third  House  (un- 
legal  if  not  illegal),  of  America's  dual  legislative 
system.  The  question  comes  up:  if  that  third 
House  always  is  and  has  to  be,  why  not  legalize 
it?  At  any  rate,  Lincoln  and  Douglas  have  now 
sighted  each  other,  possibly  measured  each  other 
just  a  little.  Anyhow,  the  report  has  come  down 
that  Lincoln  declared  Douglas  to  be  "the  least 
man  I  have  ever  seen."  Certainly  the  statement 
is  ambiguous,  and  probably  has  such  ambiguity 
as  its  point,  hinting  remotely  a  correspondence 
between  the  physical  and  mental  stature  of  the 
small  man,  with  an  unconscious  preference  on  part 
of  the  speaker  of  his  own  tallness,  of  which  it  is 
known  that  Lincoln  was  proud  all  his  days.  Anti 
pathetic  at  first  glance  we  must  deem  them  not 
only  in  politics  but  in  character,  with  a  wholly 
different  moral  substructure  for  the  edifice  of  life. 


170        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

Moreover,  they  already  represent  two  opposite 
tendencies  of  their  State,  yea,  of  their  time;  these 
two  tendencies,  now  just  starting,  will  grow  and 
widen  till  they  bring  the  Nation  into  self-collision. 

Douglas  was  born  in  Vermont,  and  in  early 
years  worked  at  the  trade  of  cabinet-maker;  still 
he  had  the  good  Yankee  primary  schooling,  and 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  classical  education.  His 
life  had  been  one  of  struggle,  and  he  may  be  called 
a  self-made  man  like  Lincoln,  though  by  no  means 
to  the  degree  or  in  the  manner  of  Lincoln.  Their 
striking  polarity  of  character  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  the  born  Southerner  becomes  the  adversary 
of  slavery,  while  the  born  Yankee  becomes,  if  not 
the  warm  defender,  at  least  the  apologist  of 
slavery.  Douglas  was  four  years  younger  than 
his  rival  and  matured  rapidly,  far  outstripping 
in  his  earlier  career  Lincoln,  who  was  a  slow 
grower  but  solid,  and  will  overtake  his  fleet  com 
petitor  in  the  final  stretch  for  the  goal  which  they 
both  have  in  common. 

The  two  grand  protagonists  to  whom  so  much 
of  the  future  belongs,  have  now  entered  the  public 
arena,  eyeing  each  other  for  the  first  time — did 
they  have  any  presentiment  of  the  peculiar  lot 
which  was  to  link  them  together  as  opposites  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  in  a  mutual  relation  ever  re 
pellent,  till  that  last  scene  on  the  steps  of  the  Na 
tional  Capitol?  There  is  a  remarkable  evolution 
in  this  double  movement  of  Lincoln  and  Douglas 


ANN  RUTLEDGE.  171 

whose  main  stages  we  shall  try  to  indicate  as  we 
proceed  in  our  narrative.  But  Lincoln  has  now 
delivered  his  first  blow  against  Douglas — not  per 
sonal  indeed,  but  partisan — which  blow,  however, 
does  not  prevent  the  youthful  contestant  from 
carrying  off  the  prize  in  the  present  case  and  often 
hereafter. 

Very  little  thought  probably  did  Lincoln  give  to 
this  matter  or  even  to  other  weightier  legislative 
matters  at  the  present  time;  a  far  deeper, 
more  intense  problem,  with  which  his  heart  was 
overflowing,  awaited  him  at  New  Salem,  whither 
he  hastened  as  soon  as  the  session  closed,  with 
hope  and  joy  radiantly  wreathing  all  his  fancies 
during  the  whole  journey,  we  must  imagine,  but 
at  the  same  time  with  dark  premonitions  shooting 
up  from  the  depths  of  his  naturally  foreboding 
soul  cloud-wracks  through  the  sunlit  horizon  of 
love. 

XII. 

Ann  Rutledge. 

Said  President-elect  Lincoln  to  a  New  Salem 
friend,  who  was  calling  on  him  before  his  depar 
ture  for  Washington,  and  who  was  led  by  the  con 
versation  to  ask  him  point-blank:  "Lincoln,  did 
you  love  Ann  Rutledge?" 

"It  is  true,  true,  indeed  I  did.  I  have  loved 
the  name  of  Rutledge  to  this  day  ....  I 


172         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

did  honestly  and  truly  love  the  girl,  and  think 
often,  often,  of  her  now."     (Lamon). 

Thus  emphatically,  after  the  lapse  of  a  full 
quarter  of  a  century,  does  Lincoln  express  his 
ever-present  memory  of  Ann  Rutledge,  who  had 
the  power  of  exciting  in  him  an  undying  love, 
which  colored  his  whole  being  and  hence  forms 
an  important  chapter  in  his  life.  Her  early 
e vanishment  took  a  poetic  form  with  him,  and 
found  utterance  in  some  verses  (not  his  own)  which 
are  usually  entitled  "Immortality,"  but  which  put 
their  whole  stress  upon  the  transitoriness  of  all 
things  human,  preluding  the  pensive  strain  with 

"Oh  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud? 
Like  a  swift-fleeting  meteor,  a  fast-flying  cloud, 
A  flash  of  the  lightning,  a  break  of  the  wave,  ' 
He  passeth  from  life  to  his  rest  in  the  grave." 

As  late  as  March,  1864,  he  repeated  at  the 
White  House  with  strong  feeling  the  poem,  which 
was  for  him  a  mournful  reminder  of  Ann  Rut- 
ledge,  an  ever-singing  dirge  of  the  soul  over  the 
vanished  loved  one,  with  the  melancholy  note  of 
which  his  deepest  emotions  became  concordant 
till  the  end  of  his  days.  Thus  Lincoln  reveals  an 
immortal  love,  which  will  attune  all  the  other 
throbbings  of  his  heart,  however  profound  and 
intense. 

But  now  let  us  go  back  and  pick  up  the  young 
man  as  he  returns  from  his  legislative  career  at 
Vandalia,  with  a  consciousness  of  having  taken  his 


ANN  RUTLEDGE.  173 

first  considerable  step  in  public  life.  He  has  won 
a  position  which  is  an  earnest  of  something 
greater.  A  regard  for  himself  he  can  now  have 
as  never  before;  he  can  deem  himself  right  worthy 
of  somewhat,  be  it  what  it  may. 

There  is  no  doubt  also  that  he  brought  back 
another  emotion  hitherto  hidden  in  his  heart — love. 
He  had  long  secretly  felt  the  tender  passion  for  a 
young  lady  we  have  already  titled  the  fairest 
flower  in  the  village.  Hitherto  her  betrothal  to 
another  who  seemed  to  have  deserted  her,  and 
Lincoln's  own  lack  of  equal  position  and  pos 
sibly  of  self-estimation,  had  deterred  him  from 
pressing  his  suit.  But  all  the  obstacles  seemed  to 
get  themselves  slowly  out  of  the  way,  and  some 
time  in  the  spring  of  1835,  while  the  birds  were 
singing  and  the  flowers  were  springing  on  the 
banks  of  the  full-flowing  Sangamon,  these  two 
young  hearts,  long  beating  with  and  for  each 
other,  were  joined  together  in  the  sacred  promise 
of  eternal  fidelity. 

Ann  Rutledge  was  the  daughter  of  the  first  cit 
izen  of  the  New  Salem  and  one  of  its  founders. 
James  Rutledge,  her  father,  was  born  in  South 
Carolina,  where  his  family  had  been  distinguished 
in  the  early  history  of  the  country,  especially  dur 
ing  and  just  after  the  Revolution.  The  name  of 
one  ancestor,  Edward  Rutledge,  is  affixed  to  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence;  another  was  one  of  the 
first  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 


174         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

States.  A  great  historic  name  was  brought  into 
the  small  town  on  the  Sangamon,  and  it  can  be 
well  understood  that  the  family  in  the  Far  West 
did  not  neglect  their  genealogy.  A  certain  pride 
as  well  as  traditional  feeling  of  superiority  inbred 
in  the  Southerner,  was  not  wanting  even  in  the 
log-cabin  tavern  of  New  Salem,  with  its  four 
rooms,  numerous  children,  besides  the  guests. 

James  Rutledge  had  migrated  from  his  native 
State  northward  to  Kentucky,  where  he  stayed 
many  years,  and  where  his  daughter  Ann  was 
born  January  7th,  1813.  For  such  has  been  the 
interest  in  Lincoln's  love-idyl  that  the  exact  date 
has  been  dug  up  by  the  eager  explorer.  But  the 
father  was  not  satisfied  with  Kentucky,  and  so 
he  crossed  the  Ohio  River  into  Illinois  and  reached 
the  site  of  New  Salem  in  1829.  He  was  a  man  of 
hospitality,  yet  with  an  eye  to  business,  keeping  a 
store  and  a  mill  in  the  village — two  important 
centers  of  its  life.  Somewhat  strangely  we  read 
that  he  kept  the  town  tavern,  not  the  natural  oc 
cupation  for  a  hospitable  man.  It  is  not  known 
why  he  quit  South  Carolina  and  then  Kentucky, 
and  never  stopped  in  his  migration  till  he  reached 
the  central  belt  of  a  Free  State.  But  his  migra 
tory  act  was  typical  of  what  was  taking  place  in 
the  20's,  30's  and  40's,  indicating  a  movement 
from  the  old  Slave  States  to  the  new  Slave  States, 
and  thence  to  the  new  Free  States  of  the  North- 
West.  It  is  substantially  the  line  of  Lincoln's 


ANN  RUT  LEDGE.  175 

own  ancestral  migration,  as  already  given  (p.  27, 
35).  The  main  ground  of  these  migrations  was 
some  questioning  of  the  servile  institution,  and 
followed  strongly  the  slavery  agitation  connected 
with  the  Missouri  Compromise  and  the  development 
of  the  cotton  culture.  It  grew  plain  that  the 
South  would  not  throw  off  slavery  through  her 
own  initiative;  the  line  between  Free  States  and 
Slave  States  became  fixed,  as  Mason  and  Dixon's, 
though  previously  fluctuating.  James  Rutledge 
belonged  to  this  great  migration  from  the  South 
to  the  North,  whatever  may  have  been  his  political 
sentiments.  We  may  note,  however,  that  in 
the  Revolutionary  period  John  Rutledge  was  a 
strong  opponent  of  slavery  (see  McCrady 's  excellent 
History  of  South  Carolina  for  this  period). 

Much  evidence  has  been  gathered  that  Ann 
Rutledge  was  the  favorite  belle  of  New  Salem. 
Herndon,  who  knew  her,  declares  that  she  was 
"a  beautiful  girl,  and  by  her  winning  ways 
attached  people  to  her  so  firmly  that  she  soon  be 
came  the  most  popular  young  lady  of  the  Village." 
Another  observer  affirms  that  her  intellect  was 
"philosophic"  as  well  as  "brilliant."  For  the  favor 
of  the  young  lady  there  was  considerable  rivalry 
among  the  young  gallants  of  New  Salem,  when 
finally  the  prize  was  won  by  a  suitor  who  went 
under  the  name  of  McNeil,  seemingly  about  1830 
or  1831.  This  was  not  far  from  the  time  when 
Lincoln  came  drifting  down  the  Sangamon  into 


176         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

New  Salem  (in  1831),  being  remembered  by  the 
people,  and  probably  by  Ann,  too,  for  his  exploit 
in  bringing  the  flat-boat  over  her  father's  mill- 
dam. 

Just  when  the  undercurrent  of  love  began  to  be 
powerful  in  Lincoln's  heart,  cannot  be  told.  He 
and  Ann  must  have  been  often  thrown  together  in 
that  small  spot.  Lincoln  boarded  at  her  father's 
tavern  in  1832,  and  then  he  saw  much  of  her  in 
her  domestic  life,  thus  becoming  well  acquainted 
with  her  character.  Also,  she  went  to  school  to 
Mentor  Graham,  the  center  of  light  in  the  town, 
with  whom  Lincoln  had  much  to  do,  as  we  have 
already  seen.  In  the  Rutledge  family  there  were 
probably  traditions  of  classic  culture.  We  hear 
that  Ann  and  her  brother  went  away  to  an 
academy  in  Jacksonville,  for  studying  some 
branches  out  of  the  range  of  the  village  school 
master.  James  Rutledge,  the  father,  seems  to 
have  organized  a  Literary  Club  at  New  Salem,  of 
which  he  was  President,  and  before  which  Lin 
coln  made  a  speech  that  pleased  Papa  Rutledge 
much,  for  he  talked  about  it  at  home  to  his 
wife,  probably  in  Ann's  presence  (Lamon). 

But  is  it  still  possible  to  reach  down  to  the 
eommon  bond  which  kept  bringing  together  young 
Lincoln  and  Ann  Rutledge?  The  two  had  selected 
each  other,  overcoming  inner  opposition  in  spite 
of  obstacles.  Their  love  blossomed  in  their  com 
mon  aspiration  for  a  higher  culture.  They 


ANN  RUTLEDGE.  177 

alone  of  that  whole  community  longed  to  rise 
above  the  low  intellectual  plane  of  the  average 
New  Salemite.  We  have  to  think  that  Ann's  love 
for  McNeil  (or  McNamar)  was  not  destroyed,  but 
divided — being  shared  unconsciously  perhaps  at 
first  by  another.  And  here  lies  her  heart's  con 
flict,  which  ends  in  her  tragedy — the  conflict  of 
two  loves  coupled  with  two  ever-clashing  duties. 
McNeil  had  shown  himself  an  excellent  business 
man,  having  in  three  years  gained  a  half  interest 
in  the  store  where  he  began  as  a  clerk,  and  hav 
ing  purchased  a  fine  farm  besides.  Therein  he  far 
outstripped  Lincoln.  Being  from  the  East,  he  had 
a  good  elementary  education,  which  Lincoln  had 
not.  But  he  seems  to  have  been  prosaic,  all  for 
business,  esteeming  the  West  for  what  he  could 
make  out  of  it  by  way  of  hard  cash. 

Then  there  was  the  class  obstacle,  so  strongly 
emphasized  in  Southern  society.  Lincoln  belonged 
to  the  poor  whites,  to  the  second  families;  Ann 
was  of  aristocratic  lineage — decidedly  of  the  First 
Families.  He  did  not  fail  to  hear  of  the  great 
Rutledges  in  that  log-cabin  of  a  tavern;  the  De 
claration  of  Independence  he  had  already  conned 
with  its  names  as  a  boy  at  Gentryville,  in  the 
Indiana  Book  of  Institutions.  The  genealogical 
tree  was  that  part  of  botany  chiefly  cultivated 
in  the  old  States,  South  and  North.  In  the  West 
it  was  inclined  to  wither  after  the  first  genera 
tion,  to  which  the  elder  Rutledge  still  belonged. 

12 


178        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

Ann,  his  young  daughter,  probably  had  her  waver 
ings  on  this  point  also. 

And  now  the  other  side  of  the  story  enters — 
the  prolonged  and  unexplained  absence  of  her 
betrothed.  McNeil's  name  was  really  McNamar; 
he  had  changed  it  for  reasons  which,  as  given 
by  him,  seem  rather  whimsical.  This  fact  he 
had  confided  to  his  lady-love,  who  afterwards 
told  the  secret  and  thereby  caused  much  gossip 
and  conjecture  in  the  village.  McNeil,  in  the 
spring  of  1834,  resolved  to  go  East,  saying  he 
wished  to  see  his  parents,  and  bring  them  to  the 
West.  Then  occurred  the  absence,  interrupted 
by  letters  to  Ann  at  long  intervals.  His  conduct 
became  the  talk  of  the  town,  whose  favorite  lit 
tle  heroine  was  involved.  Some  of  the  views  were 
bitter,  he  was  branded  as  an  adventurer,  jail-bird, 
deceiver.  But  many  who  did  not  share  this 
harsh  opinion,  regarded  it  as  a  case  of  cooled  love. 
Ann  herself  thought  so,  and  evidently  Lincoln 
also,  only  too  glad  to  slip  into  the  vacant  shoes. 
We  must  not  forget  that  the  engagement  had 
already  lasted  three  years,  if  not  longer.  In  the 
meantime  the  ungainly  youth  had  been  rising 
till  he  was  the  man  of  the  future  in  the  place, 
and  everybody  could  see  it  and  ratified  it  by  their 
votes. 

Now  it  was  at  this  opportune  time  when  Lin 
coln  stepped  in  and  began  to  press  his  suit. 
McNeil  had  been  absent  a  year  in  the  spring  of 


ANN  RUTLEDGE.  179 

1835.  Lincoln  had  come  home  from  his  legisla 
tive  career,  and  was  the  rising  star.  The  engage 
ment  followed;  but  marriage  was  again  deferred 
till  Lincoln  could  complete  his  legal  training,  and 
Ann  could  take  a  course  of  study  at  the  Jack 
sonville  Academy.  Two  spiritually  kindred  souls 
we  behold,  united  in  the  aspiration  for  higher  de 
velopment.  Here  we  have  the  intellectual  bond, 
twinned  with  the  emotional  one,  which  at  last 
brought  the  two  together  and  bound  them  in- 
dissolubly,  and  which  had  long  been  secretly  pull 
ing  their  heart-strings.  And  it  was  this  new 
preference  which  slowly  for  years  had  been  loosen 
ing  the  one  knot  and  tieing  the  other,  till  at 
last  the  sacred  pledge  has  joined  the  twain. 

But  such  was  the  nature  of  Ann  Rutledge  that 
she  could  not  make  the  transition  from  one  love 
to  the  other;  both  nestled  in  her  heart  and  tore 
it  asunder  like  two  wild  beasts.  The  re-action 
came  with  an  overwhelming  intensity;  conscience 
would  upbraid  her,  fidelity  scorned  her,  while  she 
was  dashed  to  and  fro  in  resurgences  to  her  old 
love  and  to  her  new.  She  fell  sick,  grew  worse, 
Lincoln  was  sent  for  and  stayed  an  hour  at  the 
side  of  the  dying  bride,  who  soon  after  passed 
away,  August  25th,  1835.  She  was  buried  in  the 
old  Concord  graveyard  near  New  Salem,  which 
afterward  fell  into  neglect;  but  in  1890  her  re 
mains  were  transferred  to  the  new  Oakland  cem 
etery,  where  a  stone  marked  simply  Ann  Rut- 


180        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

ledge  peers  above  the  greensward.  Thither  tender 
souls  have  begun  to  make  pilgrimages  as  they  go 
to  Verona  for  the  sake  of  seeing  the  house  of 
Rorneo  and  Juliet. 

The  effect  of  the  blow  upon  Lincoln  brought 
him  into  a  state  verging  toward  insanity.  He  was 
sent  by  his  friends  to  a  secluded  home  in  the 
country,  where  he  was  sympathetically  cared  for 
by  Mr.  Bowling  Greene  and  wife,  who  succeeded  in 
bringing  him  back  to  a  fair  condition  of  mental 
health.  It  is  stated  that  when  Greene  died  in 
1842,  Lincoln  was  selected  to  deliver  a  funeral 
oration,  but  could  not  come  to  utterance  owing  to 
his  emotion  rising  from  past  memories.  This  was 
seven  years  later,  and  the  year  of  Lincoln's  mar 
riage  with  Miss  Todd.  He  said  to  a  friend  that 
the  thought  that  "the  snows  and  rains  fall  upon 
her  grave  fills  him  with  indescribable  grief." 
And  the  memory  of  her  went  with  him  seemingly 
to  the  end;  long  afterwards  we  have  already  heard 
him  say:  "I  think  often,  often  of  her  now." 

So  we  have  the  part  of  Lincoln  as  lover  with  tragic 
intensity.  Evidently  that  love  had  been  of  long, 
persistent,  ever-increasing  growth,  even  if  secreted 
till  the  golden  opportunity  bloomed.  But  its 
crushing  might  brings  with  it  a  corresponding 
discipline.  He  has  gradually  to  get  control  of 
that  volcanic  emotional  nature  of  his,  which 
surges  through  him  as  if  it  would  undermine  his 
reason.  Lincoln  endures  the  awful  strain  and 


ANN  RUTLEDGE.  181 

comes  forth  a  purified  soul  from  the  Discipline  of 
Love,  but  he  carries  the  mark  with  him  all  his  life, 
a  tendency  to  reminiscent  sorrow  over  his  loss. 
What  did  it  do  for  him?  At  least  compelled  him 
to  the  inner  mastery  of  Fate.  The  deepest  sep 
aration  of  life  is  experienced,  immortality  is 
awakened  in  him — the  thought  of  futurity  and  the 
return  of  the  beloved  in  another  existence. 

Still  that  poem  round  which  his  deepest  emo 
tions  so  persistently  clung,  celebrates  mortality 
rather  than  immortality,  the  evanescent  rather 
than  the  eternal  in  man,  who  in  view  of  his  utterly 
fleeting  appearance  here  on  earth  should  not  exalt 
himself.  This  is  the  last  verse: 

"  Tis  the  wink  of  an  eye,  'tis  the  draught  of  a  breath, 
From  the  blossom  of  health  to  the  palenss  of  death, 
From  the  gilded  saloon  to  the  bier  and  the  shroud ; 
Oh  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud?" 

And  yet  amid  all  these  transitory  outer  shows 
of  mortality,  there  is  one  thing  that  persists  and 
is  immortal — love.  That  is  the  secret  contrast 
which  lies  in  these  verses  for  Lincoln,  recalling  and 
gratifying  through  their  utterance  the  deepest  and 
most  lasting  emotion  of  his  life.  Something  of  the 
same  strain  breathes  in  that  strangely  premonitory 
hymn  which  Lincoln  asked  Ann  to  sing  for 
him  during  her  illness,  while  she  still  could  sing: 

"Vain  man,  thy  fond  pursuits  forbear!" 

This  sounds  not  very  encouraging  to  her  lover 
on  the  outside,  but  it  must  have  touched  that 


182         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

deepest  layer  of  emotion  in  his  nature  which  felt 
in  the  fair  vanishing  shape  before  him  the  tie 
which  is  eternal.  This  hymn  was  one  "for  which 
Lincoln  always  expressed  a  great  preference,  and 
it  was  likewise  the  last  thing  she  ever  sung  "  (note 
in  Herndon  I.,  p.  129,  last  edition). 

But  what  about  the  other  lover,  McNamar?  He 
came  to  New  Salem  with  his  Eastern  family  of  rel 
atives,  two  months  after  the  death  of  Ann  Rut- 
ledge.  As  far  as  known,  he  showed  no  signs  of 
deep  sorrow;  within  a  year  he  took  a  wife.  It  has 
been  handed  down  that  he  met  at  the  post-office 
sorrowing  Lincoln,  and  made  the  remark  that  the 
latter  "seemed  desolate  and  sorely  distressed" — 
which  was  apparently  not  his  own  case.  There  is 
no  mystery  in  his  conduct,  as  some  have  thought; 
his  love  had  waned,  and  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  he  would  not  have  married  Ann  Rut- 
ledge  if  she  had  lived. 

Lincoln  seems  never  to  have  cared  for  the  young 
women  in  his  early  environment.  His  step-sister 
was  of  marriageable  age,  lived  with  him,  and  the 
mother  was  probably  willing,  yet  the  Love-God 
did  not  turn  that  way,  though  a  young  fellow  of 
the  early  twenties  has  a  natural  bent  toward  the 
tender  passion.  Pubescent  years  seem  to  have 
run  without  the  cast  of  a  single  arrow.  Ann  Rut- 
ledge  appears  to  have  been  his  first  and  probably 
his  last  love.  The  later  Mrs.  Lincoln  must  have 
known  somewhat  of  the  matter,  and  this  may 


ANN  RUTLEDGE.  183 

be  taken  as  a  partial  justification  of  certain  phases 
of  her  behavior.  Some  expression  from  Lincoln's 
own  lips,  rumor  of  the  old  affair,  the  gossipy 
tongue  of  a  neighbor,  stirred  a  temper  naturally 
irritable.  Lincoln  at  New  Salem  often  went  to 
Ann  Rutledge's  resting-place  and  wept.  He  once 
said  "My  heart  is  buried  there,"  and  there  it  seems 
to  have  stayed. 

Certain  writers  on  Lincoln  have  maintained  that 
it  was  the  death  of  Ann  Rutledge  which  wove  the 
dark  thread  of  melancholy  through  his  soul. 
Hardly;  that  thread  was  spun  by  Clotho  herself  at 
his  birth  from  his  mother's  own  temperament. 
Then  this  hereditary  trait  was  nursed  by  the  nar 
row,  cribbed,  imprisoning  environment  of  his 
youth,  for  Lincoln  was  born  an  aspiring,  limit- 
transcending  genius,  if  there  ever  was  one ;  but  like 
Ariel,  he  was  pegged 

"Into  a  cloven  pine;  within  which  rift 
Imprisoned,  thou  didst  painfully  remain 
A  dozen  years;  where  thou  didst  vent  thy  groans 
As  fast  as  mill-wheels  strike." 

So  too  Lincoln  in  his  way ;  still  he  had  found  his 
relief,  not  through  a  magician  Prospero  but 
through  himself,  strangely  mocking  his  own  Ariel's 
groans  by  his  humor  and  grotesquery,  which  never 
deserted  him  afterwards.  Still  when  this  tragedy 
of  Love  overtook  him,  there  had  to  be  a  new  and 
deeper  adjustment  of  the  spirit  to  meet  the  lower 
ing  Fates  of  existence.  That  profound  and  ever- 


184         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST 

bubbling  reservoir  of  emotion,  one  of  his  supreme 
endowments,  burst  up  into  a  boiling  maelstrom  of 
sorrow,  which  for  a  time  swirled  around  within 
itself  and  became  madness,  threatening  to  con 
tinue  such  for  life  in  its  wild  agitation.  But  he  won 
the  power  within  himself  of  turning  the  sharp 
corner  back  to  hope  and  sanity,  and  thus  became 
the  Fate-compeller  over  the  most  fateful  element 
of  his  own  nature — his  emotions,  certainly  the 
most  dangerous  part  of  the  human  fabric  if  not 
duly  ordered  and  controlled.  In  the  very  hardest 
test  Lincoln  gained  the  mastery  and  kept  it,  not 
without  mighty  resurgences  from  that  inner  reser 
voir  which  once  overflowed  for  a  brief  period  his 
reason. 

The  deepest  turn  of  his  life  he  revealed  to  the 
New  Salem  friend  already  cited,  the  one  who  paid 
him  a  visit  twenty-five  years  afterward  and  pro 
pounded  to  him  heart-searching  interrogations,  one 
of  which  has  been  already  noted.  Here  follows 
another  with  his  answer: 

"Abe,  it  is  true  that  you  ran  a  little  wild  about 
the  matter?'' 

"I  did  really.  I  ran  off  the  track.  I  loved  the 
girl  dearly.  She  was  a  handsome  girl;  would  have 
made  a  good,  loving  wife." 

And  still,  though  he  "ran  off  the  track"  in  his 
desperate  collision  with  Fate,  he  got  on  again,  and 
mastered  the  antagonist.  For  here  he  is,  Presi 
dent-elect  of  the  United  States,  and  rather  the 


ANN  RUT  LEDGE.  185 

sanest  man  of  his  time,  perchance  just  through 
that  mastery  and  its  soul-trying  discipline.  This 
now  advances  to  its  supreme  gift,  imparting  not 
merely  a  stoical,  negative  suppression  of  emotion, 
but  a  new  positive  transfigured  endowment  of 
spirit. 

The  individual  Ann  Rutledge  is  gone,  indeed, 
forever,  but  the  love  remains  and  will  not  depart. 
What  is  to  be  done  with  it?  Eradicated  it  cannot 
be,  unless  by  tearing  out  the  heart  itself  by  the 
roots.  But  it  can  be  transformed,  or  rather  trans 
figured,  and  thus  in  a  manner  be  preserved  ever 
active  and  beneficent.  From  the  individual  it 
can  be  elevated  into  universality,  and  thereby  not 
only  save  the  man  but  give  him  a  new  birth,  a 
spiritual  palingenesis.  The  problem  with  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  now  is :  Can  I  transfigure  the  love 
of  this  individual  Ann  Rutledge,  forever  vanished 
as  individual,  into  an  universal  love  for  humanity, 
ever-present  and  undying?  Can  I  rise  even 
through  emotion  from  the  one  to  the  all?  Verily 
he  can  and  does;  indeed  the  terrible  ordeal  has 
just  this  providential  purpose:  he  must  come  to 
feel  and  perchance  to  see  that  the  painful  Disci 
pline  of  Love  is  not  to  destroy  it  but  to  eternize  it 
by  transfiguring  it  into  the  personality,  and  thus 
making  it  the  inner  luminary  which  shines  through 
character  and  deeds. 

Here  we  behold,  if  not  the  original  germ,  at 
least  the  grand  flowering  of  that  deepest  and  all- 


186         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—PART  FIRST. 

pervasive  trait  of  Lincoln,  which  we  may  exalt  as 
his  universal  love.  Though  called  to  administer 
a  national  discipline,  as  severe  as  his  own  personal 
discipline  ever  was,  he  did  it  not  in  hate  and  re 
venge,  as  everybody  now  recognizes.  In  his  last 
Inaugural,  toward  the  close  of  a  bloody  and  furi 
ous  Civil  War  only  a  few  weeks  before  his  own 
evanishment,  he  reaches  the  highest  and  purest 
note  of  this  most  perfect  strain  of  his  character. 
Let  us  read  it  again,  for  it  stands  alone  among  all 
State  papers,  and  is  unique  in  Literature:  "With 
malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all;  with 
firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the 
right,  let  us  strive  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in;  to 
bind  up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who 
shall  have  borne  the  battle  and  for  his  widow  and 
his  orphan — to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and 
cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves 
and  with  all  nations." 

Such  is  the  note  of  universal  Love  in  this 
noblest  verse  of  our  American  Bible,  uttered  amid 
the  clash  of  arms  to  the  Folk-Soul  which  has  given 
to  it  a  mighty,  a  universal  response  as  expressive 
of  its  highest  self — a  response  which  keeps  rolling 
louder  and  more  harmonious  as  it  echoes  down 
Time.  The  fact  is  observable  that  this  trait  of 
Lincoln,  his  universal  Love,  has  become  at  pres 
ent  the  chief  theme  of  anecdote,  reminiscence, 
story,  novel,  and  other  literary  utterance  pertain 
ing  to  him,  directly  or  remotely.  His  kindness, 


MARY  OWENS.  187 

forgiveness,  tender-heartedness — his  "charity  for 
all" — with  instances  repeating  themselves  thou 
sandfold,  seems  to  be  selected  as  the  typical  qual 
ity  of  his  soul,  always  being  brought  up  to  the 
light,  and  celebrated  anew  in  quite  every  form  of 
human  expression. 

And  indeed  that  theme — love  of  the  individual 
transfigured  and  made  universal — has  always  been 
a  favorite  with  the  greatest  masters  in  Literature. 
We  can  find  it  in  Shakespeare,  who  thus  endows 
particularly  a  number  of  his  female  characters; 
we  can  find  it  in  Goethe,  and  above  all,  in  Dante, 
who  transfigures  his  love  of  Beatrice  after  her 
death,  so  that  she  becomes  a  symbol  of  Divine  Love 
itself,  which  draws  him  upward  to  the  celestial 
city.  The  medieval  Italian  poet  is  very  different 
from  the  modern  American  statesman;  still  it  may 
be  said  that  Ann  Rutledge  was  Lincoln's  Beatrice. 
Both  men  married  after  their  fiery  Discipline  of 
Love  through  death,  and  had  children;  but  that 
first  Love  was  the  eternal  one,  and  conducted 
them  both  into  the  universal  life  of  the  heart, 
whose  inspiration  in  Lincoln's  case  we  may  catch 
at  its  ever-living  source  in  his  simple  confession : 
"I  think  often,  often  of  her  now." 

XIII. 

Mary  Owens. 

What!  another  woman  in  line,  and  that,  too, 
so  soon!  Yes,  now  we  have  to  give  a  leap,  earth- 


188         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST 

defying,  to  the  other  side  of  our  universal  Lin 
coln — a  leap  impossible  to  many  and  straining  in 
every  joint  the  few  who  can  make  it.  The  be 
holder  of  Lincoln's  life-drama  is  whisked  with 
dizzying  celerity  from  his  Tragedy  of  Love  to  its 
grotesque  antithesis,  to  his  Comedy  of  Love.  Yet, 
just  that  is  our  lot  in  trying  not  only  to  see  but 
to  be  Lincoln  vicariously  in  this  biographic  jour 
ney. 

Accordingly  beside  the  foregoing  tragic  phase 
of  Lincoln's  life,  we  must  place  the  comic  coun 
terpart,  which  followed  not  long  after.  It  may 
be  said  that  the  two  occurrences  so  conjoined  pro 
duce  a  shocking  dissonance  in  the  reader.  But 
the  reader  must  learn  to  know  Lincoln  with  all 
his  jars,  jolts  and  contradictions,  not  a  few  of 
which  will  be  found  among  the  deepest  and  sub 
tlest,  not  only  of  his  but  of  human  nature. 

Already  it  has  been  said  that  there  is  a  per 
vasive  grotesque  element  in  Lincoln,  which  we 
have  not  only  to  acknowledge  but  to  fathom. 
Physically  there  was  something  of  the  grotesque 
in  him,  and  mentally  even  more.  From  now  on 
he  seems  to  have  relieved  the  burden  of  his  spirit 
in  the  caricature  of  his  own  ills.  Very  deep  and 
strong  ran  the  current  of  his  emotional  nature, 
and  will  tear  him  to  shreds,  unless  he  can  meet 
its  ravages  by  some  counteractive  power.  That 
inner  gnawing  gloom  can  he  somehow  turn  back 
upon  itself  and  make  it  gnaw  itself  to  death 


MARY  OWENS.  189 

instead  of  him?  Destroyer  it  is  indeed;  can  it 
not  be  whirled  about  and  be  forced  to  destroy 
itself?  Lincoln's  mastery  of  the  tragedy  of  fini- 
tude  is  now  slowly  won:  he  makes  it  finite  to 
itself  and  thus  ends  it.  His  own  inner  Furies  of 
Feeling  would  have  eaten  him  up,  unless  he  could 
have  turned  them  upon  one  another.  Thus  they 
showed  themselves  as  self-undoing,  absurd,  comic. 
Enormous  strength  of  the  spirit  this  indeed  re 
quired — here  is  probably  his  greatest  strength.  At 
Fortune  he  not  only  made  mouths,  but  made  her 
make  mouths  at  herself.  Even  Love,  getting 
vengeful  and  demonic,  is  forced  by  him  to  play 
the  part  of  a  clown  instead  of  an  all-powerful 
deity.  This  is  not  merely  light-hearted  indiffer 
ence  which  feels  little  and  cares  less,  not  steeled 
stoicism  which  lets  Fate  strike  on  in  pure  defi 
ance.  Rather  is  Fate  made  to  undo  itself  in  its 
own  blow;  its  own  stroke  is  deftly  changed  to  the 
counterstroke  upon  its  own  head.  Fate  itself  be 
comes  fated  in  Lincoln's  humor  and  is  laughed  out 
of  the  world  for  the  time  being.  All  finitude  Lincoln 
turned  to  a  grotesque  and  made  it  show  its  limits, 
even  its  lie;  he,  being  finite,  became  grotesque 
along  with  finitude,  and  thus  transcended  it,  re 
vealing  his  universal  nature.  Even  suffering  is  a 
destroying  fiend,  a  negative  power;  why  should  it 
not  somehow  be  served  up  to  itself,  if  not  directly, 
then  indirectly  by  the  mind? 

Dante's  Inferno  is,  of  all  human  portrayals,  the 


190          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

fullest  of  suffering  and  of  grotesquely,  strange  and 
horrible  as  the  combination  may  seem.  Sin  is 
shown  as  self -undoing,  and  so  at  bottom  grotesque, 
even  through  the  fires  of  Hell.  And  Homer,  the 
great  type  of  classicism,  cannot  help  making  his 
Zeus  grotesque,  especially  when  the  divine  mood 
is  negative  and  minatory.  And  that  battle  of 
Gods,  of  all-powerful  Gods  fighting  each  other,  is 
a  grotesque,  and  certainly  Homeric  for  that  reason, 
in  spite  of  the  head-shaking  critics.  And  in  Shakes 
peare  comedy  is  always  trailing  upon  the  heels 
of  tragedy;  mark  the  fool  in  Lear,  the  grave-dig 
ger  in  Hamlet,  the  drunken  porter  in  Macbeth.  So 
we  shall  find  Lincoln;  after  the  heart-rending,  tragic 
pathos  of  Ann  Rutledge  follows  the  comedy  of 
Mary  Owens.  The  latter  indeed  seems  to  have 
felt  the  true  situation,  with  her  woman's  in 
stinct;  so  she  responded  to  her  suitor  with  a 
smart  backstroke  of  his  own  humor. 

Mary  Owens  was  born  in  Kentucky,  September 
29th,  1808,  and  so  was  a  little  older  than  Lin 
coln.  She  was  well  educated,  of  polished  man 
ners,  of  a  wealthy  and  high-toned  family.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  all  three  of  Lincoln's  sweethearts 
including  his  wife,  were  aristocratic  Kentucky 
girls,  then  as  now  famous  for  their  beauty,  ca 
prices,  and  accomplishments.  Mary  Owens  visited 
her  married  sister,  who  lived  near  New  Salem, 
first  in  1833,  when  she  met  Lincoln  without  any 
pronounced  result  on  either  side.  She  returned 


MARY  OWENS.  191 

in  1836,  when  Lincoln  was  the  great  man  of  the 
village.  Then  began  the  serio-comic  interlude 
in  which  she  furnished  the  coquetry  and  Lin 
coln  the  grotesquely. 

We  may  take  as  the  overture  to  this  merry 
war  a  passage  from  Lincoln's  letter  describing  the 
event  after  it  was  over.  Merry  war  we  name  it, 
for  it  can  hardly  be  called  serious,  though  both 
parties  get  their  fingers  burnt  a  little — not  much — 
by  playing  with  fire.  But  to  the  letter:  "A  mar 
ried  lady  of  my  acquaintance  and  who  was  a  great 
friend  of  mine,  being  about  to  pay  a  visit  to  her 
father  and  other  relatives  residing  in  Kentucky, 
proposed  to  me  that  on  her  return  she  would 
bring  a  sister  of  hers  with  her,  on  condition  that 
I  would  engage  to  become  her  brother-in-law 
with  all  convenient  dispatch.  I  of  course  accepted 
the  proposal,  for  you  know  I  could  not  have  done 
otherwise  had  I  really  been  averse  to  it."  He 
adds,  however,  that  "I  was  most  confoundedly 
well  pleased  with  the  project." 

Here  is  the  start  in  banter,  Lincoln  being 
"not  averse"  to  the  trial.  A  brief  glance  of  the 
woman  as  natural  match-maker  does  not  fail  to 
peep  out  in  this  "great  friend  of  mine,"  and  this 
same  woman  knew  well  what  an  emotional  earth 
quake  Lincoln  had  just  passed  through.  Moreover 
he  had  seen  "the  said  sister  some  three  years  be 
fore,"  with  interest,  apparently,  but  without  feel 
ing  any  bolt  from  the  Love-God.  Now  think 


192         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

what  Lincoln  had  experienced  in  those  three 
years!  He  had  risen  to  be  the  first  man  of  the 
village  with  the  flattering  possibility  of  a  future 
career.  But  what  is  far  more  pertinent  to  the 
present  situation,  he  had  on  life's  stage  enacted 
the  most  passionate  tragedy  of  love.  How  could 
he  have  the  heart  to  suppress  all  that  in  a  year! 
Ah,  that  is  Lincoln  again.  The  comic  side  of  Love 
he  has  to  play  as  a  relief  from  its  destroying  tragic 
intensity. 

It  is  evident  that  Lincoln  felt  fascinated  by 
Miss  Owens  when  seen,  but  when  she  was  out  of 
sight  he  reacted  strongly.  In  her  presence  she 
might  make  him  forget,  or  see  in  her  the  other; 
but  when  he  was  left  to  himself  the  other  as  image 
came  back  overpoweringly.  In  this  mood  we 
have  two  letters  from  him  to  his  "Dear  Mary." 
The  first  is  certainly  not  encouraging.  "I  am 
afraid  you  would  not  be  satisfied"  with  my  pov 
erty  at  Springfield.  "My  opinion  is  you  had 
better  not  do  it,"  namely,  accept  my  proposal 
offered  you  personally.  Certainly  that  is  no  love- 
letter  with  its  rainbow  of  hopes;  "You  have  not 
been  accustomed  to  hardships,"  which  you  are 
certain  to  have  in  living  with  me.  What  other 
conclusion  speaks  out  of  these  words  but  this: 
Therefore  reject  me.  A  second  letter  after  a  visit 
is  even  more  dissuasive.  The  first  sentence  runs: 
"You  will  no  doubt  think  it  rather  strange  that  I 
should  write  you  a  letter  on  the  same  day  on  which 


MARY  OWENS.  193 

we  parted."  It  is  strange  and  the  reason  is  that  "at 
our  last  meeting  we  had  but  few  expressions  of 
thoughts."  In  her  presence  he  could  not  come  to 
utterance,  but  he  must  now  express  "what  my  real 
feelings  toward  you  are."  He  tells  her  that  she 
can,  if  she  so  wishes,  "leave  this  letter  unanswered 
without  accusing  murmur  from  me."  And  he 
goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  "it  is  my  sincere  wish 
that  you  should,"  if  it  will  add  "anything  to  your 
peace  of  mind."  And  in  the  last  paragraph  of 
the  same  letter  he  repeats:  "If  it  suits  you  best 
not  to  answer  this — farewell."  In  reply  he  gets 
just  what  he  wants — No.  The  relief  was  instan 
taneous  and  great,  for  it  gave  origin  to  a  wild, 
whimsical  effervescence  of  grotesquery,  which  is 
reflected  in  a  letter  to  another  lady  about  the  oc 
currence. 

This  letter  is  known  in  Lincoln  literature  as  the 
Browning  letter  (it  was  addressed  to  an  intimate 
lady-friend,  Mrs.  0.  H.  Browning),  and  has  been 
an  irremovable  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of 
some  of  Lincoln's  admirers.  Biographer  Lamon 
wished  to  withhold  it  if  "the  act  could  be  decently 
reconciled  to  the  conscience  of  a  biographer."  He 
was  shocked  by  "its  grotesque  humor,"  and  others 
have  echoed  his  plaints.  Lincoln  was  a  good,  yea 
a  famous  speller,  but  it  seems  that  he  set  off  the 
general  tomfoolery  of  this  letter  by  a  "defective 
orthography."  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  gives 
himself  up  to  a  fit  of  broad  caricature  as  he  looks 

13 


194         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

back  at  the  whole  affair.  It  was  not  the  genuine 
article  at  all,  and  well  does  he  know  the  fact.  It 
was  a  false,  delusive  phantom  of  love  on  the  part 
of  both,  and  hence  ridiculous,  self-annulling,  comic. 
A  little  comedy  of  love  one  may  deem  the  action, 
at  whose  conclusion  nobody  perishes,  or  even  gets 
seriously  hurt,  though  Lincoln  confesses  that  "I 
very  unexpectedly  found  myself  mortified  almost 
beyond  endurance !"  Still  he  had  sought  all  along 
"how  I  might  procrastinate  the  evil  day."  But 
when  that  "evil  day"  did  come,  it  brought  an 
answer  just  the  opposite  of  what  he  expected. 
Long  afterwards  Miss  Owens  gave  a  superb  sum 
mary  of  the  situation:  "I  thought  Mr.  Lincoln 
deficient  in  those  little  links  which  make  up  the 
chain  of  woman's  happiness."  Such  a  listless, 
insipid  lover  was  just  no  lover  at  all,  and  so  she 
gives  him  back  his  own  when  they  reach  the 
parting  of  the  ways. 

Lincoln  does  not  spare  himself  in  the  same  let 
ter:  "I  most  emphatically  in  this  instance  made 
a  fool  of  myself."  He  thinks  of  never  marrying, 
because  "I  can  never  be  satisfied  with  anyone 
who  would  be  blockhead  enough  to  have  me." 
In  his  portraiture  of  Miss  Owens,  he  distorts  her 
features  to  caricature,  making  her  "a  fair  match 
for  Falstaff,"  fat,  toothless,  weather-beaten,  aged 
(she  was  a  few  months  older  than  Lincoln,  and 
certainly  was  more  beautiful).  Of  course  these 
expressions  were  used  in  a  private  letter,  which 


THE  PASSING  OF  NEW  SALEM.  195 

he  took  as  a  vehicle  for  blowing  off  his  native 
grotesquely.  This  was  an  inherent  part  of  the 
total  man,  the  reverse  side  of  him  and  also  of  his 
world. 

Thus  in  the  drama  of  life  Lincoln  has  played 
the  two  parts  of  Love,  the  tragic  and  the  comic, 
or  the  serious  and  the  humorous — parts  opposite, 
indeed,  yet  forming  one  totality  of  personal  ex 
perience,  as  well  as  of  the  amatory  theme  itself. 
Therewith  his  many-colored  career  at  New  Salem 
draws  to  a  close  in  a  shocking  outburst  of  gro- 
tesquery,  but  deeply  concordant  with,  and  explana 
tory  of  his  whole  nature.  And  our  variegated  vil 
lage  of  New  Salem,  itself  a  grotesque,  begins  also 
to  wind  up  its  brief  panorama  of  existence,  hav 
ing  furnished  an  harmonious  setting  for  the  most 
unique  and  diversified  stage  in  the  Apprenticeship 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

XIV. 

The  Passing  of  New  Salem. 

Very  closely  identified  were  the  young  village 
and  the  young  man,  the  communal  and  the  per 
sonal  characters,  New  Salem  and  Lincoln.  Verily 
they  grew  in  strong  correspondence ;  they  were  for 
a  period  symmetrical  counterparts,  with  lives 
deeply  intertwined.  Man  unfolds  in  and  with  his 
community,  his  institution;  and  the  community 
pivots  upon  its  great  individual,  often  rising  and 
falling  with  him  in  the  stages  of  his  career.  Lin- 


196         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

coin  spiritually  moves  out  of  New  Salem,  and  what 
has  it  to  do  but  to  die,  its  soul  having  departed 
and  its  function  being  accomplished?  That  de 
clining  village,  in  co-operation  with  his  own  short 
comings,  had  brought  him  failure,  had  in  fact 
thrown  him  back  for  a  time  to  his  beginning  as 
rail-splitter.  When  notice  comes  to  him  that  he 
can  be  appointed  assistant  surveyor  of  Sangamon 
County,  the  bearer  of  the  message  finds  him  no 
longer  in  New  Salem,  but  in  the  woods  working 
at  his  old  employment  of  making  rails.  Thus  he 
has  been  whisked  back  quite  to  his  Illinois  start 
ing-point.  But  of  a  sudden  and  very  unexpect 
edly  the  messenger  of  the  Gods  (we  may  again 
say)  having  taken  the  form  of  a  well-known  neigh 
bor,  Pollard  Simmons  by  name,  appears  to  him 
beside  a  prostrate  oak,  and  catches  his  arm  in  the 
very  act  of  uplifting  a  huge  maul,  and  exclaims: 
Stop,  0  Lincoln,  the  Gods  have  other  work  for 
thee.  Then  the  messenger  announces  their  de 
cree,  and  Lincoln  obeys,  recognizing  the  divine 
call  which  has  dropped  down  upon  him  so  sud 
denly,  at  his  lowest  depression  there  in  the  woods. 
His  activity  is  no  longer  to  be  confined  to  a  petty 
village  but  is  to  extend  over  the  whole  county  of 
Sangamon,  with  whose  people  he  is  henceforth  to 
come  into  contact.  His  surveyorship  is  the  tran 
sition  out  of  New  Salem  to  a  larger  field;  the  some 
what  narrow  communal  life  is  to  be  transcended, 
and  Lincoln  will  become  acquainted  with  a  new 


THE  PASSING  OF  NEW  SALEM.  197 

and  wider  range  of  the  Folk-Soul,  which  it  is  his 
destiny  at  last  to  know  and  to  represent  in  its  en 
tirety.  Thus  through  the  kind  and  opportune  help 
of  John  Calhoun,  surveyor  of  Sangamon  County, 
Lincoln  is  brought  to  take  an  important  step  toward 
the  goal  of  his  career,  breaking  out  of  his  New 
Salem  environment,  and  rescued  from  sinking  back 
into  his  earlier  pinched  existence  on  a  farm. 

But  what  about  New  Salem  itself?  It  slowly 
drifts  towards  its  fate  in  extinction.  As  a  piece 
of  driftwood,  it  has  no  staying  power,  never  had; 
in  deepest  accord  with  its  drifting,  insubstantial 
character,  it  must  pass  and  cease  to  be.  Negative 
we  have  called  it,  so  what  has  it  to  do  but  to  van 
ish?  Strangely  it  drifts  with  the  stream  and  is 
transformed  into  another  and  different  community. 
The  town  of  Petersburg,  which  is  soon  to  be  laid 
out,  is  two  miles  down  the  Sangamon  from  New 
Salem,  which. now  seems  to  float  off  from  its  hil 
lock,  navigating  for  a  little  distance  the  turbid 
current  which  has  otherwise  shown  itself  not  very 
navigable.  We  may  see  the  village  giving  up  its 
very  anchor  of  hope,  which  was  the  navigability 
of  the  Sangamon,  and  flinging  itself  down  from  its 
perch  into  the  roaring  waters  of  its  loved  river- 
nymph,  who  has  proved  so  faithless  to  her  early 
promise.  Disappearing  in  the  waves  for  a  while, 
it  crawls  out  on  the  bank,  but  metamorphosed  into 
the  town  of  Petersburg. 

It  was  in  the  year  1836  that  Lincoln,  in  his  ca- 


198         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

pacity  of  surveyor,  was  called  upon  to  plan,  to  lay 
out  in  lots  and  streets,  in  fine,  to  bring  into  vis 
ible  existence  the  successor  of  his  own  New  Salem. 
He  had  already  resolved  to  leave  the  latter,  hav 
ing  nearly  finished  his  law-course,  and  intending 
to  make  Springfield  his  home.  One  can  have  lit 
tle  doubt  that  he  felt  the  coming  evanishment  of 
the  village.  There  was  always  in  it  something  of 
the  uncertain,  transitory,  or  drifting,  as  we  have 
so  often  termed  it.  Our  interest  in  it  springs  from 
the  fact  that  Lincoln  during  these  years  had  the 
same  general  trait.  And  now  his  call  is  to  put  an 
end  to  his  own  and  the  village's  time  of  drifting. 
After  some  weeks  of  labor  the  new  town  of  Peters 
burg  is  born  through  the  surveyor's  skill,  is  baptized 
with  a  name,  and  starts  off  in  the  world,  still  to 
day  regarding  Lincoln  affectionately  as  its  god 
father. 

There  was  enough  in  the  situation  to  give  rise 
to  sombre  reflections  in  the  mind  of  Lincoln  prone 
to  melancholy.  Of  course  none  of  these  reflections 
have  come  down,  very  few  of  them  were  probably 
ever  spoken,  still  he  must  have  been  aware,  even  if 
dimly,  that  he  was  leaving  behind  himself  one 
stage  of  his  Apprenticeship,  and  entering  upon 
another.  New  Salem  he  felt  to  be  a  part  of  him 
self — a  part  which  is  now  to  disappear  forever. 
Could  he  help  thinking  of  Ann  Rutledge  whom  the 
same  lot  of  earthly  evanishment  had  befallen, 
foreshadowing  in  a  kind  of  human  symbol  the  fate 


THE  PASSING  OF  NEW  SALEM.  199 

of  the  village,  and  perchance  more  remotely  of 
himself?  New  Salem  was  gradually  deserted,  be 
coming  a  communual  graveyard  from  which  even 
the  houses  have  now  vanished. 

Petersburg,  the  new  town,  continues,  and  will 
continue  to  exist ;  still  it  has  not,  nor  is  it  likely  to 
have  the  fame  of  that  dead  village,  New  Salem, 
which  bloomed  so  suddenly  but  lived  hardly  a  de 
cade.  Its  brief  life,  however,  is  immortally  inter 
twined  with  Lincoln;  it  seemed  to  arise  and  to 
exist  in  order  to  give  him  a  certain  necessary 
part  of  his  training  for  his  work.  Then  its  ground 
for  living  departed,  and  it  drifted  down  stream  out 
of  sight,  having  furnished  in  its  own  career  a  small 
sympathetic  world  for  unfolding  an  important 
stage  of  Lincoln's  career. 

To  our  mind  there  is  a  poetic  strand  in  the  rise, 
bloom  and  decline  of  New  Salem;  in  fact,  the 
whole  village  passes  before  us  as  a  kind  of  poem 
in  action,  of  which  Lincoln  is  the  hero,  who  fills 
all  its  leading  parts  with  a  certain  heroic  suprem 
acy.  Small,  verily,  is  the  field,  so  small  that 
the  deeds  often  take  a  mock-heroic  tinge;  still  they 
are  real  and  call  forth  the  latent  gifts  of  their 
youthful  doer.  We  have  often  named  it  an  Ho 
meric  village,  as  it  has  the  poetic  power  of  sug 
gesting,  and  even  re-enacting  phases  of  old  Homer's 
world.  Little  epical  turns  mark  often  its  doings, 
which  move  around  a  central  figure,  as  in  ancient 
Greek  legend.  Lincoln  as  fabulist,  as  athlete,  as 


200         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

captain  in  war,  as  lawgiver,  we  have  seen  center 
ing  his  people  about  him,  and  making  himself  the 
representative  and  also  the  voice  of  the  Folk-Soul 
in  that  little  community,  but  large  enough  for  his 
present  talent.  At  the  same  time  he  is  taking 
quite  a  course  in  self-education  through  the  Printed 
Page,  truly  his  University  in  the  right  sense,  for 
it  universalizes  him,  carrying  him  far  beyond  the 
narrow  bounds  of  his  village.  Then  comes  the 
peculiar  finale,  still  poetic  in  an  actual  tragedy  and 
comedy,  which  give,  not  the  one  homogeneous  side, 
but  the  two  wholly  heterogeneous,  indeed,  oppo 
site  sides  of  Lincoln  and  of  Human  Nature,  which 
are  so  difficult  to  synthesize  into  one  character. 
Yet,  how  else  can  the  man  be  complete — a  whole 
and  not  merely  a  half? 

But  now  Lincoln,  having  played  all  his  village 
parts,  is  done  with  New  Salem,  and  New  Salem  is 
done  with  itself.  Hardly  again  will  it  be  his  lot 
to  breathe  such  a  sunny  idyllic  atmosphere,  and  to 
build  out  of  life's  stray  shreds  such  a  completely 
rounded  poem,  which,  indeed,  he  never  sang,  not 
having  the  gift  of  music,  but  nevertheless  acted  to 
the  end.  Two  exits,  then,  we  have  at  this  point: 
exit  Lincoln  from  New  Salem,  and  exit  New  Salem 
itself.  What  next?  Behold:  the  two  pieces  of 
floating  driftwood  come  to  anchorage. 


OHAPTER  THIRD. 

(Betting  Hncbore&, 

Lincoln's  transition  from  New  Salem  was  not 
the  work  of  a  day.  We  can  trace  him  slowly  and 
doubtless  painfully  severing  the  tie  for  more  than 
a  year.  In  the  fall  of  1836  he  was  licensed  to 
practice  law,  which  he  had  been  directly  studying 
for  some  two  years,  and  indirectly  much  longer. 
His  enrolment  as  a  member  of  the  bar  at  Springfield 
took  place  in  March,  1837,  after  his  return  from 
Vandalia,  where  he  had  played  the  distinguished 
part  of  capital-mover.  This  honor  he  shared  with 
the  rest  of  the  "Long  Nine,"  upon  whom  ban 
quets  and  toasts  were  showered  for  their  deed, 
heroic  in  the  eyes  of  Springfield. 

Still  the  entrance  of  Lincoln  into  Springfield  as 
a  permanent  resident  and  famous  legislator  was 
not  in  the  form  of  a  triumph.  His  first  appear 
ance  has  been  recorded  by  Joshua  F.  Speed,  to 
whose  store  his  good  genius  led  him  straightway. 
The  account  of  Speed  runs :  "He  had  ridden  into 
town  on  a  borrowed  horse  with  no  earthly  prop 
erty  save  a  pair  of  saddle-bags  containing  a  few 
clothes."  Lincoln  wished  to  buy  some  bedding, 
which  cost  seventeen  dollars.  But  he  could  not 
pay  it,  and  asked  for  credit  till  Christmas,  saying 
that  if  his  experiment  as  a  lawyer  was  a  success, 

(201) 


202         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

he  could  pay  then.  But  he  added :  "If  I  fail  in 
this  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  ever  pay  you." 
With  these  words  the  cloud  descended,  which,  one 
thinks,  may  have  hovered  over  him  all  the  way 
from  New  Salem.  "I  never  saw  a  sadder  face," 
says  Speed,  who  grew  sympathetic^  and  made  on 
the  spot  the  extraordinary  offer  to  the  ungainly 
stranger:  "I  have  a  double  bed  up  stairs  which 
you  are  perfectly  welcome  to  share  with  me." 
Lincoln  grasped  his  saddle-bags,  climbed  to  the 
room,  and  set  them  down  on  the  floor.  Descend 
ing  soon  with  radiant  countenance  he  exclaimed 
to  his  benefactor:  "Well,  Speed,  I'm  moved." 

Surely  the  Gods  have  not  deserted  Lincoln,  nor 
Speed.  It  is  a  memorable  act  of  kindness  whose 
consequences  weave  themselves  into  the  lives  of 
both  men,  yea,  into  coming  history.  That  home 
less  stranger  is  really  on  his  way  to  the  Presidency 
when  he  enters  Speed's  store  at  Springfield  and 
is  given  shelter.  Never  will  he  forget  that  un 
paralleled  act  of  hospitality,  which  has  rendered 
the  doer,  and  even  doer's  family,  immortal. 

Lincoln  is  now  located,  having  made  one  of  the 
important  transitions  of  his  life,  which  in  its  out 
ward  environment  may  be  stated  as  the  transition 
from  New  Salem  to  Springfield.  His  survey orship 
was  a  kind  of  bridge  for  him  between  these  two 
places.  As  already  indicated,  New  Salem  was  a 
sinking  town,  it  had  a  rather  fast  life,  too  fast  to 
endure.  A  hope-raiser  and  a  hope-dasher  it  was; 


CHAPTER  THIRD  — GETTING  ANCHORED.  203 

Lincoln  had  run  through  its  whole  gamut  of  up 
and  down,  and  now  he  has  to  jump  or  sink  with 
it,  for  it  refuses  to  drift  longer,  but  is  surely  going 
to  the  bottom.  The  great  fact  of  Lincoln's  transi 
tion  to  Springfield  is  that  he  gets  anchored,  first 
anchoring  it  as  the  permanent  Capital  of  the 
State.  This  he  will  not  leave  till  he  starts  many 
years  later  for  the  Capital  of  the  Nation,  to  which 
he  will  likewise  give  a  new  and  far  firmer  anchorage. 

Springfield  was  at  this  time  a  thriving  town  of 
some  fifteen  hundred  people,  who,  for  the  most 
part,  had  come  from  the  South,  mainly  from  Ken 
tucky.  Thus  it  was  an  outgrowth  of  that  great 
Southern  migration  into  the  North-West ,  which 
has  been  already  set  forth  as  a  deep,  though  often 
unconscious  reaction  from  slavery.  Lincoln  be 
longed  to  that  same  migration,  and  found  himself  in 
congenial  company.  But  Springfield  had  been  a 
center  of  attraction  for  the  more  wealthy  and  aris 
tocratic  class  of  Southerners,  while  he  in  origin 
at  least  reckoned  himself  among  the  poor  whites. 
Especially  the  Kentucky  patriciate  was  well  rep 
resented  and  socially  dominated  the  town.  Still 
the  ability  and  worth  of  Lincoln,  chief  capital- 
mover,  were  at  once  recognized. 

Lincoln  has,  accordingly,  gotten  out  of  a  float 
ing  into  an  anchored  community,  and  thus  has 
something  to  tie  to,  namely,  the  primal  commu 
nal  institution.  This  we  may  well  deem  the  first 
requisite  of  a  settled  life.  Then  he  has  concen- 


204         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

trated  himself  upon  a  single  vocation,  the  law, 
toward  which  he  has  long  been  drifting,  through 
all  sorts  of  sinuosities;  at  last  he  is  centered  pro 
fessionally.  How  many  different  callings  did  he 
not  pursue  at  New  Salem,  trying  to  anchor  his 
economic  existence!  He  soon  drops  surveying 
even,  being  able  to  make  a  living  at  law;  nor  do 
his  legislative  duties  seem  to  weigh  him  down  when 
he  gets  to  the  Capital,  though  he  is  elected  twice 
afterwards.  Now  he  becomes  definitely  political, 
a  Henry  Clay  Whig,  having  moulted  completely 
his  Jackson  Democracy,  of  which  he  still  bore 
traces  in  New  Salem.  But  in  the  Presidential  cam 
paign  of  1836,  he  had  wholly  shed  his  Democratic 
snake-skin  and  left  it  behind.  Moreover,  he  be 
came  a  very  deft  organizer  of  State  politics,  a  skill 
which  he  will  use  to  good  purpose  hereafter. 

A  chief  element  in  the  culture  of  Lincoln  during 
this  part  of  his  Springfield  period  was  society. 
Really  he  entered  a  new  social  class,  the  aforesaid 
Kentucky  patriciate,  composed  of  the  lawyers, 
officials,  professionals  generally,  to  whom  must  be 
added  the  leading  business  men,  notably  his 
friend  Speed.  The  town  was  also  full  of  Kentucky 
ladies,  married  and  unmarried,  well  bred  and 
socially  agreeable,  and  beautiful  of  course.  The 
gawky  farmer-boy  and  the  rude  New  Salem 
athlete  and  story-teller  is  going  to  get  some 
polish,  or  is  at  least  to  see  refined  manners. 
Parties,  balls,  social  visits  now  take  up  a  portion 


CHAPTER  THIRD  — GETTING  ANCHORED.  205 

of  Lincoln's  time,  and  give  him  their  training, 
while  he  still  can  absorb  it;  there  is  no  doubt 
that  society  was  attractive  to  him,  even  if  he 
never  became  a  stunning  beau  of  the  exquisite 
type.  This  experience  was  also  a  part  of  his  Ap 
prenticeship:  moreover  he  came  to  understand 
Kentucky  well  in  and  through  Springfield,  which 
knowledge  will  perform  its  great  service  in  his 
skillful  treatment  of  that  State  during  the  Civil 
War.  As  he  left  Kentucky  when  a  mere  child,  he 
could  not  know  much  about  it;  he  became  ac 
quainted  with  it  in  Springfield,  especially  with 
the  character  of  its  ruling  class. 

One  asks  what  literature  did  Lincoln  study 
during  these  years?  He  probably  did  not  neglect 
the  Printed  Page  to  which  he  had  shown  hitherto 
such  devotion;  but  he  paid  more  attention  to 
human  intercourse  and  less  to  books.  As  he  is  at 
the  center,  he  gets  to  know  the  political  leaders 
of  the  State  through  whom  the  Folk-Soul  is 
reached,  as  well  as  the  strings  of  partisan  net 
work  always  radiating  out  from  the  Capital.  Or 
atory  he  had  already  cultivated,  but  political 
organization  he  now  studied  and  became  an  ex 
pert.  Lincoln  got  to  know  the  politician,  where 
strong  and  where  weak;  he  grew  naturally  to 
be  one  himself,  or  rather  the  leader  of  them 
in  his  State,  till  he  mounted  above  them,  yet 
through  them,  to  the  Nation.  He  was  well 
aware  that  the  politician  has  his  place  in 


206         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

our  system  of  political  parties,  being  the  chief 
means  of  reaching  and  organizing  the  scattered 
masses  of  the  People.  So  Lincoln  had  his  ap 
prenticeship  to  wire-pulling,  and  to  touching  the 
salient  motives  of  men  who  were  to  be  his  instru 
ments.  Sitting  at  the  center  of  the  State  cobweb, 
he  learned  how  to  move  its  fine  filaments  extend 
ing  to  the  circumference.  The  politician,  though 
in  disfavor,  has  to  be,  but  he  ought  to  be  con 
trolled,  and  not  permitted  to  become  an  end 
unto  himself.  We  shall  often  see  Lincoln  em 
ploying  him  but  subordinating  him  to  the  su 
preme  end  of  the  Nation,  yea  of  the  World's 
History.  This  the  master  could  not  have  done 
without  knowing  his  servant  to  the  bottom,  with 
out  his  having  been  such  a  servant  once  himself 
in  the  time  of  his  Apprenticeship. 

The  present  period  of  Lincoln's  life  lasts,  as  we 
conceive  it,  till  his  marriage  in  1842,  which  is  his 
final  anchoring  in  the  Family,  now  his  own,  and 
not  his  father's.  It  thus  runs  some  six  years,  or 
nearly  so,  quite  as  long  as  his  stay  at  New  Salem. 
But  the  latter  is  far  better  known,  and  can  be  fol 
lowed  in  considerably  greater  detail.  The  reason 
seems  to  be  that  Lincoln,  when  he  went  to  Spring 
field,  no  longer  lived  such  an  open  communal  life; 
his  law  practice  did  not  bring  him  so  much  in  con 
tact  with  all  the  people;  his  political  activity  was 
more  secretive,  being  devoted  rather  to  manage 
ment  than  to  personal  electioneering.  But  chiefly 


CHAPTER  THIRD  — GETTING  ANCHORED.  207 

his  social  ambition  changed;  without  giving  up 
wholly  his  popular  bent,  he  became  strongly  at 
tached  to  Springfield's  select  patriciate,  chiefly 
Kentuckian,  which  furnished  so  many  of  his 
warmest  friends  and  supporters.  This  attach 
ment  he  will  carry  with  him  into  the  Presi 
dency.  Lincoln's  social  aspiration  would  seem  to 
shine  through  this  further  fact:  the  heroines  of  his 
three  chief  love-affairs  belonged  to  the  class  above 
that  in  which  placed  himself,  indeed  all  three  of 
them  were  blue-blooded  Kentucky  girls,  as  already 
noted. 

How  different  these  six  years  from  the  preced 
ing  six!  The  central  figure  drops  into  the  back 
ground,  and  Lincoln's  manifold  heroship,  so  prom 
inent  in  the  village,  seems  quite  snuffed  out  in  the 
Capital.  But  with  it  vanished  also  that  little 
poetical  world  of  which  he  was  the  chief  incarna 
tion,  and  of  whose  pivotal  deeds  he  stood  forth  as 
the  leader.  Not  the  small  community  now  but  the 
whole  State  is  present  in  its  officials,  whose  great 
ness  naturally  overtopped  the  hero  of  diminutive 
New  Salem.  But  Lincoln  must  move  into  the 
larger  field  and  strive  for  its  possession  also, 
though  he  has  to  pass  through  a  time  of  eclipse 
during  this  new  stage  of  his  Apprenticeship.  The 
routine  of  a  humdrum  profession  he  has  to  learn 
and  follow  instead  of  the  varied  kaleidoscopic  turns 
and  changes  of  "a  piece  of  floating  driftwood . ' '  From 
poetry  he  must  come  down,  down  to  prose,  which 


208        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

has  also  its  right  of  existence,  particularly  in  Illi 
nois,  with  its  dead  level  of  prairie.  To  the  reader 
short  must  be  these  six  years,  though  they  were 
probably  long  to  Lincoln. 

Still  he  remains  story-teller,  wherever  he  is; 
even  a  champion  he  becomes,  not  in  bloody  war 
against  the  barbarians,  but  in  a  bloodless  duel, 
transcendently  serio-comic.  Then  he  gets  mar 
ried.  Of  these  unheroic  years  we  shall  patch 
together  a  few  of  the  more  significant  details  which 
have  risen  to  the  surface  in  detached  bits. 

I. 

Legislative. 

The  second  term  of  Lincoln  in  the  Illinois  Leg 
islature  was  the  most  active  and  important  of  his 
four  terms.  He  met  with  leading  men  from  every 
part  of  the  State  and  formed  their  acquaintance; 
also,  he  took  their  measurement,  which  he  care 
fully  stored  up  in  his  mind  for  future  use.  In  the 
previous  session  (1834-6)  he  was  more  the  quiet 
student,  watching  Public  Opinion  as  it  crystallized 
itself  into  law  through  the  legislative  departmsnt 
of  the  government — the  peculiar  process  of  the 
American  Folk-Soul,  which  must  first  get  a  con 
viction  and  then  make  it  legal.  But  what  moves 
the  Folk-Soul  to  such  conviction  antedating  the 
work  of  legislation?  That  is  a  very  significant 
question  which  will  occupy  Lincoln  later,  especially 


LEGISLATIVE.  209 

in  his  debate  with  Douglas.  For  instance  in  re 
gard  to  slavery,  the  People  came  to  have  a  certain 
strong  conviction,  of  which  Lincoln  rose  to  be  first 
the  expounder  and  then  the  realizer,  even  through 
war.  But  whence  originates  that  conviction, 
which  enters  the  popular  mass  and  kneads  the 
same  as  its  protoplasmic  material  ere  making  itself 
the  principle  of  government?  To  catch  a  glimpse 
of  its  supernal  source  we  have  to  ascend  the 
heights  of  Universal  History,  of  which  the  given 
People  or  Nation  is  one  stage  or  epoch,  participat 
ing  just  through  such  conviction  in  the  world- 
historical  movement  of  the  Ages.  Now  Lincoln, 
we  may  repeat,  is  preparing  in  this  Apprenticeship 
of  his  to  be  the  mediator  between  these  two  Powers 
which  we  have  already  designated  as  the  Folk-Soul 
and  the  World-Spirit. 

At  present,  however,  we  are  to  see  Lincoln  in 
one  of  his  earlier  stages  of  development:  from  the 
limited  communal  life  of  New  Salem  he  is  passing 
into  a  knowledge  of  his  State  through  his  legisla 
tive  experience.  In  1837  Illinois  felt  a  prodigious 
desire  for  expansion,  which  expressed  itself  in  the 
demand  for  internal  improvements  at  the  expense 
of  the  public  treasury.  There  was  to  be  a  net  work 
of  canals  intersecting  and  connecting  all  parts  of 
the  State;  with  surprise  we  hear  of  a  scheme  for 
conjoining  the  Illinois  river  with  Lake  Michigan  by 
a  canal — a  work  now  in  process  of  fulfilment.  A 
system  of  railroads  was  also  planned — especially 

14 


210        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

one  was  to  bisect  the  State  from  East  to  West, 
running  from  Danville  to  Quincy.  Nor  was  the 
improvement  of  the  rivers  forgotten,  though  the 
Sangamon  fared  badly.  In  fact,  Lincoln  himself, 
quitting  New  Salem,  seems  also  to  have  quite 
abandoned  his  yellow-tressed  water-nymph,  who 
had  exerted  in  former  years  such  a  fascinating 
power  over  his  love  and  his  imagination.  Typical 
of  his  changed  spirit  is  the  fact  that  the  Sangamon 
no  longer  flows  through  his  life. 

Still  we  might  say  that  the  former  dream  of  the 
little  community  has  expanded  to  be  the  dream  of 
the  whole  State  of  Illinois,  which  becomes  as  full 
of  chimerical  projects  as  was  ever  New  Salem. 
Lincoln  as  its  representative  seems  to  have  carried 
its  fever  with  him  to  the  Capital  at  Vandalia, 
where  it  spread  to  the  entire  legislative  body, 
which,  under  the  influence  of  the  epidemic,  made 
enactments  which  can  only  be  called  delirious.  At 
last  the  crisis  of  the  malady  came,  and  it  was  a 
crisis — that  of  1837,  well-known  for  its  virulence 
in  our  financial  history.  The  whole  people  shared 
the  delusion,  and  their  representatives  simply  en 
acted  the  popular  craze  into  law.  Very  expensive 
was  the  debauch;  from  it  the  State  contracted  a 
debt  which  took  a  good  while  to  pay.  Herein  the 
affair  resembled  the  New  Salem  debt  of  Lincoln, 
who  also  had  had  his  speculative  fever  some  years 
before,  and  who  often  jocosely  compared  his  stand 
ing  obligation  to  the  national  debt.  Curious  is  it 


LEGISLATIVE.  211 

to  note  that  all  Illinois  passed  through  the  stage  of 
fancy-fed  New  Salem  with  its  navigable  Sangamon 
and  paid  the  penalty,  as  did  also  Lincoln,  whose 
career  we  are  following  in  its  corresponding  envi 
ronment.  But  the  village  perished  of  the  malady 
while  the  State  recovered,  and  Lincoln  escaped  by 
flight,  carrying  with  him  his  burden  of  indebted 
ness  for  many  years. 

The  chief  personal  feat,  however,  of  Lincoln  at 
this  Legislature,  was  his  share  in  getting  the  Capi 
tal  moved  from  Vandalia  to  Springfield.  Nine 
members  were  chosen  from  Sangamon  County,  all 
of  them  strong  men  in  mind  and  tall  in  stature; 
hence  they  became  known  as  the  "long  nine."  It 
is  acknowledged  that  Lincoln  was  their  leader,  and 
had  afterwards  the  name  of  being  the  capital- 
mover  from  friends  and  enemies.  He  made 
Springfield  the  Capital  of  the  State,  and  then  went 
there  to  live  permanently,  taking  his  place  at  the 
center.  The  way  in  which  he  performed  this  ex 
ploit  has  been  frequently  the  subject  of  animad 
version.  He  is  supposed  to  have  done  it  chiefly 
by  trading  votes:  You  vote  for  my  scheme  and 
I'll  vote  for  yours;  you  want  the  new  canal  or  the 
new  railroad  to  come  to  your  place;  I'll  help  you 
with  my  vote  and  with  my  tongue,  if  need  be,  if 
you'll  help  me  with  yours.  As  there  was  a  vast 
material  just  then  for  making  such  bargains 
through  the  many  schemes  for  Public  Improve 
ments,  Lincoln  evidently  used  it  for  his  end.  That 


212        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—  PART  FIRST. 

is  the  character  of  the  politician  everywhere  and 
everywhen,  and  the  statesman  cannot  escape  it, 
looking  out  always  for  his  quid  pro  quo. 

Nor  must  we  fail  to  observe  a  little  parenthetic 
clause  in  his  appeal  to  his  electors,  written  from 
New  Salem  under  the  date  of  June  13th,  1836: 
"I  go  for  admitting  all  whites  to  the  right  of 
suffrage  who  pay  taxes  or  bear  arms  (by  no  means 
excluding  females)."  Here  bursts  out  a  stunning 
idea  with  a  kind  of  detonation — one  of  his  last 
New  Salem  explosions.  Never  afterwards  did  he 
pick  up  again  that  idea,  which  probably  burnt  his 
fingers  a  little  in  the  handling.  At  any  rate  in 
Springfield  he  grew  dumb,  as  far  as  the  record 
goes,  upon  Woman's  Suffrage.  Why?  Hard  to 
tell;  but  with  this  single  shot  of  his  life  at  such 
game,  we  may  conceive  him  turning  away  to  the 
great  coming  question  of  the  age,  that  of  Slav 
ery,  upon  which  he  levels  in  this  Legislature 
his  first  thunderous  broadside. 

II. 

Anti -Slavery  Protest. 

A  pivotal  act  in  his  career  Lincoln  deemed  his 
earliest  anti-slavery  document,  which  was  entered 
upon  the  Illinois  House  Journal  of  March  3rd, 
1837,  in  the  form  of  a  Protest  against  certain  Res 
olutions  passed  by  the  Legislature.  In  his  auto 
biographic  sketch  of  1860  he  gives  the  document 


ANTI-SLAVERY  PROTEST.  213 

in  full,  with  the  statement  that  it  "defined  his  po 
sition  on  the  slavery  question;  and  so  far  as  it 
goes,  it  was  then  the  same  that  it  is  now."  The 
following  is  the  text  of  the  protest,  an  undoubted 
composition  of  Lincoln,  now  27  years  old: 

"Resolutions  on  the  subject  of  domestic  slav 
ery  having  passed  both  branches  of  the  General 
Assembly  at  its  present  session,  the  under 
signed  hereby  protest  against  the  passage  of  the 
same. 

"They  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is 
founded  both  on  injustice  and  bad  policy,  but  that 
the  promulgation  of  Abolition  doctrines  tends 
rather  to  increase  than  abate  its  evils. 

"They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  has  no  power  under  the  Constitution  to  in 
terfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  differ 
ent  States. 

"They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  has  the  power  under  the  Constitution  to 
abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but 
that  the  power  ought  not  to  be  exercised  unless  at 
the  request  of  the  people  of  the  District. 

"The  difference  between  these  opinions  and 
those  contained  in  the  above  resolutions  is  their 
reason  for  entering  this  Protest. 

DAN  STONE, 
A.  LINCOLN, 
Representatives  from  the 

County  of  Sangamon." 


214         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

Such  is  the  Protest,  evidently  composed  by 
Lincoln  and  throwing  a  search-light  forward 
through  his  whole  future  career  to  the  end.  The 
document  is  drawn  with  such  care  and  the  limits 
are  observed  with  such  nicety  that  he  never  had 
to  explain  it  away  or  apologize  for  it  afterwards. 
It  bears  testimony  that  he  already  saw  the  lines 
along  which  the  great  coming  battle  was  to  be 
fought  victoriously.  Possibly  he  already  dreamed, 
for  Lincoln  was  ambitious,  that  he  might  be  the 
leader. 

We  see  laid  down,  accordingly,  in  the  foregoing 
statement  "so  far  as  it  goes,"  the  lines  of  Lincoln's 
future  attitude  toward  slavery,  which  Congress 
cannot  interfere  with  where  it  already  exists,  but 
which  Congress  can  abolish  in  the  District  of  Co 
lumbia  with  the  consent  of  its  people.  When  he 
gets  to  Washington  as  representative,  Lincoln  will 
try  his  hand  at  this  last  business  without  success. 
The  omission  is  striking:  not  a  word  about  keeping 
slavery  out  of  the  Territories,  the  burning  question 
of  a  later  time.  The  fact  is  that  this  question  was 
supposed  to  be  settled  so  effectively  by  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise  that  it  was  not  worth  the  men 
tion.  But  when  that  Compromise  is  repealed  in 
1854,  the  territorial  problem  breaks  out  with  new 
violence,  and  Lincoln  takes  from  it  his  final  trend 
which  lands  him  in  the  Presidency. 

Still  the  strong  declaration  is  to  be  noted  that 
"the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  both  on  in- 


ANTI-SLAVERY  PROTEST.  215 

justice  and  bad  policy",  is  both  a  moral  and  an  eco 
nomic  evil.  In  spite  of  his  moral  reprobation  of 
it,  Lincoln  recognized  its  legal  and  constitutional 
right,  and  hence  was  not  an  abolitionist,  and  even 
deprecated  abolitionism  pure  and  simple.  In  this 
document  we  see  that  he  already  maintains  that 
the  opposition  to  slavery  must  be  institutional, 
preserving  Law  and  Constitution.  At  the  same 
time  we  feel  in  it  already  the  truth  of  one  of  his 
Presidential  utterances:  "I  am  naturally  anti- 
slavery."  In  a  little  speech  to  an  Indiana  regi 
ment  he  declares:  "I  have  always  thought  that 
all  men  should  be  free.  .  .  .  Whenever  I  hear 
anyone  arguing  for  slavery,  I  feel  a  strong  impulse 
to  see  it  tried  on  him  personally."  Give  him  back 
his  own,  let  him  taste  the  consequences  of  his 
principle — that  is  universal  justice.  The  moral 
spirit  in  Lincoln  was  very  strong;  just  as  strong 
was  his  institutional  spirit.  Yet  slavery  has  intro 
duced  the  bitterest  conflict  between  the  two — be 
tween  the  moral  and  the  institutional;  which  of 
the  two  must  go  to  the  wall?  The  exclusively 
moral  man  cries:  Down  with  your  institutions 
since  they  support  slavery;  the  exclusively  institu 
tional  man  cries:  Down  with  your  fanatical  mo 
rality  which  assails  vested  rights  in  Law  and  Con 
stitution.  Lincoln  already  sees  and  feels  the  acrid 
dualism  which  is  to  grow  more  and  more  disunit 
ing  and  separative  till  it  rends  the  American 
Folk-Soul  in  twain — which  separation  it  is  to  be 


216         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

the  peculiar  work  of  Lincoln  to  overcome.  Sig 
nificant  is  it,  therefore,  to  trace  the  presence  of 
these  two  colliding  elements  in  this  earliest  anti- 
slavery  document  of  the  Great  Emancipator,  who 
has  at  last  to  wipe  out  the  source  of  the  ever- 
harassing  dualism  and  thus  bring  an  inner  peace  to 
the  hitherto  self-conflicting  Folk-Soul. 

One  other  name,  that  of  Dan  Stone,  stands  with 
Lincoln  on  the  document,  and  is  thereby  eternized. 
No  other  members  of  that  Legislature  were  will 
ing  to  attach  their  signatures.  Let  it  be  noted 
that  Lincoln  has  now  begun  to  hear  the  World- 
Spirit,  and  even  to  voice  it  in  a  way;  Dan  Stone 
also  heard  it  possibly,  affixed  his  sign-manual  to 
this  early  utterance  of  it,  and  then  sank  down  for 
ever  into  the  sea  of  oblivion,  in  thought-stirring 
contrast  to  Lincoln.  Why  was  the  one  individual 
chosen,  and  the  other  quite  dismissed?  Let  that 
be  the  secret  of  the  Powers  who  have  the  matter 
in  hand;  the  scribe,  looking  backward,  can  only 
set  down  the  fact  in  a  reflective  mood. 

But  who  of  all  those  legislative  members  whose 
names  are  not  signed  to  Lincoln's  protest  is  the 
coming  man  on  the  other  side  of  the  burning  ques 
tion?  In  the  ranks  of  the  opposition  yonder 
stands  a  stout,  low-statured,  rotund,  rubicund 
youth,  only  23  years  old,  who  has  been  elected 
from  Morgan  County  to  this  Legislature  of  1836; 
he  is  the  destined  antagonist  of  Lincoln  for  a  quar 
ter  of  a  century,  who  wages  with  him  a  contest 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (*).  217 

which  we  may  conceive  as  starting  here  and  last 
ing  till  Lincoln  is  elected  over  him  to  be  President 
of  the  United  States.  That  is  young  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  already  noticed,  but  now  to  be  looked  at 
again. 

III. 

Lincoln  and  Douglas  (2). 

Douglas,  as  member  of  the  Legislature  of  1836-8, 
had  participated  in  the  delirium  of  Public  Im 
provements,  which  left  such  a  load  of  debt  upon 
Illinois  and  intensified  the  financial  crisis  of  1837. 
Lincoln  also  had  assisted  in  blowing  that  colossal 
bubble,  having  become  an  adept  in  a  small  way  at 
New  Salem.  Here  is  a  point  in  which  both  were 
at  one,  and  likewise  were  in  agreement  with  the 
People.  A  statement  of  Lincoln  has  come  down 
that  his  great  ambition  was  to  be  called  the  De- 
Witt  Clinton  of  Illinois.  But  when  the  day  of 
reckoning  came  with  its  sledge-hammer  hand,  Lin 
coln  did  not  propose  repudiation  either  in  his  own 
case  or  in  that  of  the  State.  He  began  probably 
now  to  receive  his  lasting  title  of  honor,  being 
famed  as  Honest  Abe  from  the  mouth  of  the  Peo 
ple.  By  way  of  contrast  popular  rumor  has  pre 
served  a  saying  of  Douglas  in  a  stump-speech  per 
taining  to  the  debt:  "Illinois  ought  to  be  honest 
if  she  never  paid  a  cent."  In  this  double-working 
oracle  we  may  catch  a  gleam  of  a  trait  of  Douglas 
as  politician;  he  would  dodge  an  issue,  and  even 


I 
218        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

ride  two  horses  if  necessary.  Still  we  hold  that 
Douglas  was  an  institutional  man  in  the  deepest 
of  him,  even  if  he  would  play  cuttle-fish  when  his 
enemies  pursued  him  hotly  (so  Lincoln  compared 
him) ,  and  would  ink  the  waters  about  himself  with 
his  words  so  that  nobody  could  tell  quite  where  he 
stood. 

But  now  out  of  the  thousands  in  Illinois,  out  of 
the  millions  in  the  United  States,  have  been  sifted 
two  men  who  are  standing  face  to  face  in  the  same 
deliberative  body  at  the  little  dot  called  Vandalia, 
and  begin  their  antagonistic,  yea,  their  antipathetic 
careers.  From  this  germinal  point  they  will  un 
fold  until  they  stand  face  to  face  before  the  thou 
sands  in  Illinois,  and  then  before  the  millions  in 
the  United  States.  These  are  the  pair  of  Olympian 
wrestlers  in  whom  the  grand  struggle  of  the  time 
is  to  become  incorporate,  and  of  whom  one  must 
finally  fling  the  other  to  the  earth,  showing  himself 
the  single  towering  victor  in  the  mighty  contest  of 
the  age.  Many  share  with  him  the  fame  and 
honor,  but  he  is  the  one  altogether  supereminent. 

The  point  at  which  the  two  careers  may  be  best 
seen  starting  out  on  their  divergent  lines  through 
the  future,  is  the  passage  of  the  before-men 
tioned  Resolutions,  against  which  Lincoln  made 
his  Protest.  Douglas  supported  them,  and  may 
indeed  have  had  a  hand  in  preparing  them,  for 
they  strike  his  ever-recurring  political  key-note: 
Stop  agitating  this  slavery  question.  They  cannot 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (2).  219 

be  called  pro-slavery  nor  anti-slavery;  but  they  do 
indicate  a  moral  indifference  to  the  great  problem 
of  the  time.  Thus  they  seem  quite  like  Douglas, 
whose  famous  later  statement  was  in  regard  to 
Kansas:  Don't  care — "I  don't  care  whether  it 
(slavery)  is  voted  up  or  down."  In  support  of 
these  Resolutions  we  may  see  Douglas  taking  his 
first  step  in  his  doctrine  of  indifference,  a  small 
step  indeed,  yet  a  step. 

The  Protest  of  Lincoln  differs  from  the  Resolu 
tions  very  little  except  in  one  striking  particular, 
which  asserts  the  belief  "that  the  institution  of 
slavery  is  founded  both  on  injustice  and  bad 
policy."  Thus  the  moral  element  is  voiced  in 
Lincoln's  Protest,  which  was  suppressed  in  the 
Resolutions,  though  these  presented  the  institu 
tional  element,  which,  however,  was  not  denied 
but  re-asserted  in  the  document  of  Lincoln.  Sla 
very  is  both  a  wrong  and  a  curse-— that  must  be 
proclaimed  even  while  granting  its  constitutional 
rights.  The  logic  here  implies  that  the  Constitu 
tion  contains  a  wrong  which  ought  to  be  elimi 
nated  with  time;  that  elimination  is  indeed  Lin 
coln's  supreme  coming  task,  now  barely  glimpsed, 
but  unfolding  more  and  more  into  light  with  the 
passing  years. 

Douglas,  adhering  formally  to  transmitted  insti 
tutions,  will  dam  out  the  rising  moral  conviction, 
which  Lincoln  will  not  only  preserve  but  make 
institutional.  Herein  we  behold  their  first  polit- 


220         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

ical  differentiation,  behold  their  divergent  careers 
raying  out  from  the  common  center  at  Van- 
dalia  in  1837,  till  they  embrace  the  State  and  the 
Nation.  At  present  we  can  see  that  this  rising 
moral  conviction  was  the  first  faint  irradiation  of 
the  approaching  sun-up  of  the  Age,  the  barely  felt 
impress  of  the  World-Spirit  upon  the  Folk-Soul, 
which  Lincoln  already  feels  and  starts  to  uttering. 
But  Douglas  has  no  such  incipient  stirring  of  the 
conscience  from  supernal  sources,  as  far  as  can 
now  be  observed ;  still,  let  it  not  be  forgotten,  he 
was  an  institutional  man,  and  therein  kept  himself 
attuned  to  his  people  for  a  long  time,  and  dis 
tanced  Lincoln.  At  last,  however,  he  smote  their 
moral  conviction  in  the  face  and  lost  largely  his 
popular  hold.  But  we  must  recollect  that  in  the 
last  act  of  his  life  he  showed  his  basic  institutional 
character  when  Union  and  Constitution  were  as 
sailed,  and  came  to  the  aid  of  his  life-long  antag 
onist  in  their  support. 

So  we  are  to  grasp  the  original  point  in  which 
Lincoln  and  Douglas  are  at  one,  and  to  which  they 
will  come  back  after  a  varied  and  circuitous  de 
flection  of  a  fourth  of  a  century.  Antitypes 
they  are  indeed  in  their  moral  natures;  but  insti 
tutionally  they  rest  upon  the  same  basis  of  Union 
and  Constitution.  In  fact  this  is  also  the  differ 
ence  between  the  before-mentioned  Resolutions 
and  Lincoln's  Protest,  which  have  also  their  same 
ness. 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (0).  221 

We  have  already  noted  that  Lincoln  moved 
from  New  Salem  to  Springfield  after  the  close  of 
the  session  of  the  Legislature  in  the  spring  of 
1837.  But  who  is  this  other  rosy  young  gentleman 
coming  to  live  at  the  new  Capital  about  the  same 
time?  It  is  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  the  hitherto  un 
conscious  competitor  of  Lincoln;  but  now  their  ri 
valry  is  to  become  conscious,  being  confined  for  a 
goodly  time  to  a  small  locality.  Each  will  get  to 
know  the  other  as  his  other,  as  his  antitype,  yet 
bound  up  with  him  in  a  sort  of  inseparable  oppo 
sition.  The  two  greatest  luminaries  of  Illinois 
now  rise  together  and  start  to  whirling  about  each 
other  in  a  common  orbit  and  toward  the  same 
goal,  yet  always  antithetic  and  mutually  repel 
lent.  Their  very  entrance  into  Springfield  shows 
the  typical  contrast.  Jolly,  round,  rubicund 
Douglas  brings  a  public  office  along  in  his  hand, 
always  lucky;  while  lean,  sallow,  hollow-cheeked 
Lincoln  brings  a  pair  of  saddle-bags  equally  lean 
and  wrinkled  with  himself,  riding  on  a  bor 
rowed  horse,  "with  the  saddest  face  I  ever  saw," 
hardly  knowing  where  to  lay  his  head  till  kind- 
hearted  Speed  shares  with  him  his  own  bed. 

During  four  years,  till  Douglas  leaves  Springfield 
in  1841,  the  two  antagonists  meet  at  every  charac 
teristic  point  and  strike  fire.  In  the  same  profes 
sion  they  tilt;  both  are  politicians  but  of  opposite 
parties;  both  are  young  fellows  in  society;  finally 
both  seek  the  favor  of  the  same  woman.  It  must 


222       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  — PART  FIRST. 

be  deemed  one  of  the  chief  experiences  of  Lincoln 
in  this  Springfield  epoch  that  he  comes  to  know 
his  other  human  half  as  man,  or  his  anti-self ,  invis 
ible  active  or  counteractive  incarnation.  In  about 
every  important  relation  of  life  he  runs  upon  and 
clashes  with  his  counterpart,  his  antithetic  double, 
not  as  ghost  by  any  means,  but  in  living,  victo 
rious  energy. 

Still  these  are  the  two  coming  Great  Men  of  the 
State  and  Nation,  and  will  approve  themselves 
such.  They  are  both  of  the  North-West  and  rep 
resent  its  dualism,  its  growing  struggle  between 
the  moral  and  institutional  elements,  each  of  which 
has  been  roused  into  activity  through  the  question 
of  slavery.  The  statesmen  of  the  Atlantic  coast 
may  be  more  learned,  polished,  yea  grammatical; 
but  it  is  the  North-West  which  takes  the  chief 
part  in  restoring  the  Union  and  saving  the  Nation, 
furnishing  the  leaders,  both  civil  and  military.  Is 
there  any  reason  for  this  fact  in  the  logic  of  his 
tory?  We  believe  that  there  is — but  more  on  this 
theme  hereafter. 

Returning  to  the  play  of  counterparts  at  Spring 
field,  some  of  their  main  points  of  emulation  and 
of  collision  may  be  specially  noticed.  They  came 
from  Vandalia  leaders  of  their  respective  parties, 
Whig  and  Democratic;  but  this  leadership  they 
must  have  shared  with  other  older  men  in  the 
service.  Douglas  entered  Springfield  with  a  fresh 
political  appointment — that  of  Register  of  Lands; 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (2)  223 

yet  in  a  few  months  he  was  nominated  as  candidate 
for  Congress  by  his  party.  The  Whigs  selected  as 
their  nominee  John  T.  Stuart,  Lincoln's  law- 
partner. 

(a)  Thus  arose  their  first  political  tournament 
before  the  people,  Lincoln  ardently  supporting  his 
friend  and  partner  against  Douglas.  Stuart  was 
elected,  but  by  so  narrow  a  margin  that  a  contest 
was  threatened.  Douglas,  however,  gave  it  up. 
An  extract  from  a  letter  of  Lincoln  to  Stuart, 
while  the  latter  was  at  Washington  in  1839,  gives 
a  glimpse  of  Lincoln's  view  of  Douglas:  "A  report 
is  in  circulation  that  he  (Douglas)  has  abandoned 
the  idea  of  going  to  Washington,  though  the  re 
port  does  not  come  in  a  very  authentic  form.  . 
.  .  You  know  that  if  we  had  heard  Douglas  say 
that  he  had  abandoned  the  contest,  it  would  not 
be  very  authentic."  To  the  last  Lincoln  was  in 
clined  to  discount  the  strict  veracity  of  his  rival 
in  political  utterances. 

(6)  Next  we  may  place  their  oratorical  emula 
tion,  which  culminated  in  a  double  set  of  partisan 
speeches  before  a  Springfield  audience,  four  to  a 
side.  Of  course  Lincoln  and  Douglas  were  two  of 
the  contestants.  We  have  still  Lincoln's  some 
what  lengthy  speech  on  the  occasion.  Of  its  de 
tails  we  need  not  say  much,  except  to  note  the 
fact  that  he,  now  conscious  of  his  real  foe,  directs 
his  main  battery  against  Douglas.  Discussions 
between  them  and  others  on  street-corners  and  in 


224       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

stores  were  common  before  an  interested  crowd  of 
spectators.  Sometimes  words  were  followed  by 
blows,  as  the  following  citation  (Works  I.,  p.  40) 
from  one  of  Lincoln's  letters  indicates:  " Yester 
day  Douglas,  having  chosen  to  consider  himself 
insulted  by  something  in  the  Journal,  undertook 
to  cane  Francis  (the  editor)  in  the  street.  Francis 
caught  him  by  the  hair  and  jammed  him  back 
against  a  market-cart,  where  the  matter  ended  by 
Francis  being  pulled  away  from  him.  The  whole 
affair  was  so  ludicrous  that  Francis  and  everybody 
else  (Douglas  excepted)  have  been  laughing  about 
it  ever  since."  So  reports  the  rival;  but  take 
care,  Lincoln,  your  turn  will  come  next  in  far  more 
ridiculous  affair,  in  a  serio-comic  sham-duel. 

(c)  We  catch  a  few  indications  that  there  was 
also  considerable  social  rivalry  between  the  two 
contestants.  It  has  been  noticed  that  quite  a 
sprinkling  of  the  Kentucky  patriciate  had  settled 
in  Springfield,  and  that  Lincoln  devoted  himself  a 
good  deal  to  their  society.  Douglas,  though  a 
Yankee,  was  not  behindhand  in  the  favor  of  the 
ladies;  indeed,  when  the  two  were  dressed  up  and 
at  "the  cotillion  party/'  the  contrast  must  have 
been  peculiarly  striking.  It  is  said  that  Lincoln 
preferred  the  society  of  men,  and  would  slip  off 
from  the  dance  to  a  group  of  listeners,  to  whom 
he  would  begin  telling  stories.  This  was  indeed 
his  field,  in  which  he  was  conscious  of  his  superi 
ority.  Douglas  certainly  looked  better  than  his 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (2).  225 

rival  in  the  parlor  and  ball-room,  for  this  reason, 
if  for  none  other,  that  garments  could  not  be  made 
to  fit  Lincoln,  with  his  spindle  shanks  and  long 
lopping  arms,  ending  in  enormous  feet  and  hands. 
So  Douglas  was  a  far  more  perfect  clothes-horse 
than  Lincoln,  and  won  the  game  in  stylish  appear 
ance — an  important  point  with  the  ladies. 

(d)  The  summit  of  this  personal  rivalry  in 
Springfield  was  reached  when  they  both  became 
suitors  for  the  love  of  the  same  woman.  Miss 
Mary  Todd  had  already,  it  seems,  become  Lin 
coln's  betrothed  when  Douglas  appeared  on  the 
scene,  determined  to  cut  his  rival  out.  The  couple 
"promenaded  the  streets,  arm-in-arm,  frequently 
passing  Lincoln,"  who  proposed  to  throw  up  the 
affair,  but  did  not  then  succeed.  The  result  was 
that  the  young  lady  took  sick  with  a  double  love, 
her  case  being  similar  to  that  of  Ann  Rutledge.  It 
so  happened  that  her  brother-in-law  was  her  physi 
cian,  who,  having  gotten  out  of  her  the  secret 
cause  of  her  illnes,  went  to  Douglas  and  begged 
him  to  desist,  " which  he  did  with  great  reluc 
tance"  (Herndon). 

It  may  be  here  noted  that  Douglas  and  Miss 
Todd,  later  Mrs.  Lincoln,  had  striking  points  of  sim 
ilarity,  physically  and  mentally.  Both  were  stout- 
statured,  rotund  in  shape  and  general  contour, 
and  ruddy.  Both  were  brilliant  of  mind,  showy, 
and  seemingly  of  like  temperaments.  Both  formed 

a  striking  contrast    to  Lincoln  in  spirit  and  ex- 
is 


226       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  — PART  FIRST. 

temally.  Why  did  they  not  unite  in  wedlock? 
Rumor  has  it  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  once  told  a 
friend  that  "she  loved  Douglas,  and  but  for  her 
promise  to  marry  Lincoln,  would  have  accepted 
him."  Be  that  as  it  may,  she  takes,  of  her  two 
rivals,  not  her  likeness  but  rather  her  opposite — 
the  Love-God  being  notoriously  a  contrary  little 
imp  anyhow.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  strange 
fate  of  Lincoln  that  he  wooed  and  wedded  a  kind 
of  female  Douglas,  his  feminine  antitype.  Heavens ! 
what  will  become  of  him,  and  of  her,  too! 

But  in  1841  Douglas  quits  Springfield,  no  doubt 
to  the  great  relief  of  Lincoln,  who  could  not  help 
seeing  that  in  worldly  success  and  promotion  his 
rival  outstripped  him.  Douglas  was  advanced  to 
a  new  and  higher  position,  that  of  Supreme  Judge 
of  the  State  for  the  district  of  Quincy,  to  which 
he  moved.  He  had  been  the  chief  cause  of 
abolishing  the  old  Judiciary  by  legislative  enactment 
— against  which  high-handed  act  Lincoln  with  his 
partisan  friends  made  another  protest  in  the  Legis 
lature — and  then  the  abolisher  received  one  of  the 
vacancies  which  he  had  made,  one  of  the  new 
Judgeships.  From  this  office  Douglas  obtained 
his  title  of  Judge,  which  Lincoln  usually  gave  him 
instead  of  that  of  Senator  in  their  later  debates, 
possibly  with  a  spice  of  irony  in  such  a  designa 
tion. 

In  this  Springfield  rivalry  lasting  four  years, 
the  two  grand  protagonists  of  the  coming  era  find 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (2).  227 

each  other  out  as  to  ability  and  character.  They 
become  conscious  of  their  rivalry,  which  at  last 
reaches  down  to  the  deepest  fact  of  the  age,  and 
drives  them  to  take  sides  as  leaders  of  the  two  oppos 
ing  principles  which  are  slowly  engaging  in  a 
death-grapple  throughout  the  Nation.  This  mu 
tual  self-awareness,  won  at  Springfield,  was  an  im 
portant  node  in  the  careers  of  both;  each  has 
selected  the  other  as  the  foremost  champion  in  op 
position  to  himself  in  the  race  for  the  ultimate 
prize,  which  dimly  hovers  in  the  distance  before 
both.  Indeed  what  bright  American  boy  has  not 
been  told  that  he  might  be  President?  Lincoln 
and  Douglas  were  both  exceedingly  ambitious,  and 
their  ambition  was  political,  which  could  end  only 
in  the  one  supreme  goal.  Each  gets  clarified, 
through  a  quadrennial  competition  on  one  small 
spot,  about  himself  and  about  his  rival;  each 
comes  to  know  the  other  as  antitypal  in  spirit  and 
antagonistic  in  aim.  This  long  personal  contact, 
with  its  reciprocal  rivalry,  must  be  emphasized  as 
very  significant  for  both,  since  it  never  takes  place 
again;  it  is  a  foreshadowing  and  indeed  a  prepa 
ration  through  intimate  personal  knowledge  for 
the  distant  contest  when  is  to  be  settled  which  of 
the  two  is  to  have  his  principle  and  indeed  his 
character  regnant  in  the  Nation  as  an  ever-living 
exemplar  and  ideal. 

The  struggle  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas  was 
long,   serious,   and   strenuous,  pertaining  to  the 


228       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  — PART  FIRST. 

weightiest  matters  in  the  life  of  the  individual  and 
of  the  Nation.  But  now  rises  again  a  kind  of  carica 
ture  of  it  along  Lincoln's  pathway;  another  gro 
tesque  begins  its  sportive  counterplay  in  which  he 
takes  a  hand,  almost  in  spite  of  himself,  for  how 
can  he  help  it?  Upon  the  Springfield  stage  there 
enters  a  comic  character,  or  easily  capable  of 
being  made  such;  with  him  Lincoln  gets  en 
tangled  in  a  comic  conflict,  and  is  made  to  enact 
his  part  in  a  new  comedy,  not  now  of  Love  but 
of  Honor. 

IV. 

Lincoln  in  a  Duel. 

Of  course  it  was  not  a  real  duel  winding  up  in 
bloodshed,  but  a  sort  of  acted  travesty  on  the 
genuine  thing;  very  threatening  at  first,  it  blew  off 
in  bluster.  Lincoln  has  been  blamed  for  his  share, 
and  he  felt  much  mortified  when  it  was  over. 
Still,  nature  had  to  assert  itself,  and  Lincoln  was 
double-natured,  being  endowed  equally  with  a  sigh 
and  a  laugh  as  counter  breaths  of  the  one  soul. 
Very  serious  and  deep-lying  was  his  emulation  of 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  whose  strong,  sober  talent  he 
had  to  meet  with  a  corresponding  one  of  his  own; 
but  a  burlesque  was  his  encounter  with  James 
Shields,  who  was  himself  a  burlesque  and  easily 
made  Lincoln  bubble  over  with  burlesquery  by  a 
kind  of  reactionary  sympathy.  So  another  comic 


LINCOLN  IN  A  DUEL.  229 

interlude    weaves    itself    into    the   many-colored 
texture  of  Lincoln's  Apprenticeship. 

As  the  result  of  a  recent  Democratic  victory,  a 
new  auditor  of  the  State  appeared  at  Springfield 
and  took  possession  of  his  office.  This  was  James 
Shields,  born  in  Tyrone  County,  Ireland,  and  gifted 
with  all  the  brilliancy,  fight  and  folly  of  his  race. 
His  character  and  talent  were  transcendently 
Celtic,  which  the  Saxon  finds  so  hard  to  under 
stand  and  to  deal  with,  not  only  over  the  sea  but 
also  here  in  America.  Shields  had  the  native  sud 
den  coruscation  of  his  people,  if  not  in  word,  at  least 
in  deed;  but  he  had  little  staying  power.  His  in 
itiative  was  his  best,  flashing  suddenly  with  daz 
zling  splendor,  and  then  going  out  in  darkness. 
He  was  chosen  Senator  of  the  United  States  at 
three  different  times,  not  once  to  succeed  himself 
in  the  same  State,  but  from  three  different  States 
— Illinois,  Minnesota,  and  Missouri.  Never  has  the 
thing  been  done  before  or  since;  such  a  feat  could 
only  be  performed  by  the  typical  Irishman  at  his 
best — truly  a  wonder-working  magician  able  to 
conjure  up  about  himself  Senatorial  strokes  of 
lightning,  three  of  them,  from  wholly  separate 
places .  That  ability  no  Anglo-Saxon  ever  possessed . 
Shields  showed  the  same  talent  in  his  military 
career.  In  the  Mexican  War  he  was  appointed 
outright  a  Brigadier-General,  to  the  great  surprise 
of  all  who  knew  him;  and  then  to  their  still 
greater  surprise  he  came  back  a  military  hero  of 


230       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

the  first  water,  having  received  a  wound,  with 
many  another  poor  fameless  fellow,  in  a  sudden 
dash  at  Cerro  Gordo.  In  the  Civil  War  the  man 
whose  blood  his  Honor  now  clamors  for,  repeats 
the  act  of  making  him  Brigadier-General,  though 
Lincoln  probably  cracked  many  a  joke  about  that 
former  unfathomable  appointment.  And  Shields 
is  said  to  have  won  at  the  battle  of  Winchester 
the  only  victory  ever  gained  over  Stonewall  Jack 
son,  though  his  laurels  here  have  been  contested. 

So  Shields,  as  a  high  State  official,  enters  the 
circle  of  Springfield's  best  society.  He  was  an 
ardent  partisan,  ardent  in  everything.  It  is  said 
that  he  undertook  to  play  a  very  effusive  social 
part  to  the  staid  Kentucky  patriciate,  who  began 
to  ridicule  him.  To  this  was  added  the  unfortu 
nate  habit  of  not  only  shaking  but  of  squeezing  the 
tender  hands  of  the  young  ladies  to  whom  he 
might  be  introduced.  Such  at  least  is  the  infer 
ence  to  be  drawn  from  the  repeated  allusions  in 
the  letters  which  afterwards  came  out  in  print. 
Then  Shields  could  not  suppress  in  polite  society 
a  certain  amount  of  self-glorification,  due  of 
course  to  his  transcendent  abilities  and  to  his 
famous  exploits. 

Into  this  harmless  ridicule  an  unpopular  meas 
ure,  in  which  Shields  participated,  put  a  sharp 
sting.  He  with  other  State  officers  refused  by 
a  published  order  to  receive  for  taxes  the  bills  of 
the  State  Banks,  which  had  become  much  depre- 


LINCOLN  IN  A  DUEL.  231 

ciated  in  the  crisis  of  1837.  Large  quantities  of 
this  paper  were  held  by  Democratic  farmers  of 
the  State,  who  had  elected  these  very  officials  and 
who  began  to  murmur  discontent  on  all  sides. 
The  Whigs,  largely  in  the  minority  in  the  State  as 
a  whole,  saw  their  opportunity  and  egged  on  the 
quarrel,  hoping  thereby  to  lay  up  a  good  stock 
of  political  capital  for  their  own  future  use. 
Through  one  cunning  device  or  other  they  endeav 
ored  to  widen  the  breach,  now  gaping  ominously, 
between  the  Democratic  voter  and  his  officers. 

Lincoln  saw  the  humor  of  the  situation,  always 
tempting  to  that  one  side  of  his  nature  before 
mentioned,  and,  as  a  good  Whig,  resolved  to  add 
his  mite  to  help  forward  the  cause.  In  this  mood 
he  wrote  a  rollicking  burlesque  of  a  letter  ad 
dressed  to  "Dear  Mr.  Printer"  from  the  Lost 
Townships,  dated  August  27th,  1842,  and  ascribed 
to  "Aunt  Becca,"  a  country  widow  who  wants  to 
"know  in  your  next  paper  whether  this  Shields  is 
a  Whig  or  Democrat?"  The  satire  is  first  directed 
against  the  Democratic  party,  and  then  concen 
trates  upon  Shields,  who  is  designated  in  the  letter 
by  an  irate  Democrat  as  "a  fool  and  liar,"  for 
which  epithets  the  reasons  are  given.  But  the  cul 
mination  is  a  farcical  picture  of  Shields  at  a 
Springfield  party  and  his  behavior  toward  the 
young  ladies,  speaking  with  "a  most  exquisite 
contortion  of  his  face,"  and  indulging  in  that  awful 
hand-squeezing  of  the  fair  ones  lasting  "about  a 


232       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

quarter  of  an  hour."  The  letter  from  the  Lost 
Townships  was  printed  in  a  local  newspaper  and 
became  at  once  the  talk  of  the  town. 

It  should  be  here  noted  that  this  production  of 
Lincoln  is  written  in  the  Western  dialect  and  dia 
logue,  with  the  corresponding  local  grammar  and 
spelling.  It  is  one  of  the  earlier  instances  of  a 
literary  form  which  has  developed  enormously 
since  Lincoln's  little  skit.  On  this  side  it  is  a 
kind  of  prophecy  of  the  modern  dialect  novel  and 
novelette,  which  seem  to  be  exploring  and  exploit 
ing  every  corner  of  the  country.  Lincoln  loved 
this  sort  of  fiction,  which  apparently  culminated 
for  him  in  the  letters  of  Petroleum  V.  Nasby  from 
the  "Confederate  X  Roads" — (compare  his  letter 
from  the  "Lost  Townships"). 

"Dana,"  asked  Lincoln  some  thirty-two  years 
after  the  present  time,  "have  you  ever  read  any  of 
the  writings  of  Petroleum  V.  Nasby?"  Dana 
was  a  literary  man,  able  writer  of  leading  ed 
itorials,  but  in  those  days  Assistant  Secretary  of 
War  (1864).  He  replied  to  the  President's  ques 
tion:  "No,  sir;  I  have  only  looked  at  some  of 
them  and  they  seemed  to  me  quite  funny."  Dana 
evidently  appreciates  but  does  not  sympathize 
with  Nasby ;  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War,  also  pres 
ent,  neither  appreciates  nor  sympathizes,  and  so 
does  not  understand  one  full  side  of  Lincoln's 
nature.  The  three  men  were  gathered  to  scan  the 
returns  of  the  Presidential  election  of  1864,  which 


LINCOLN  IN  A  DUEL.  233 

were  coming  in  by  telegraph.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  Lincoln  was  deeply  anxious  about  the  result 
of  that  election,  nor  was  he  then  without  solicitude 
for  Grant  in  Virginia.  But  during  a  little  lull  in 
the  returns,  he  breaks  out:  "Well,  let  me  read 
you  a  specimen";  then  he- pulled  out  a  thin,  yellow- 
covered  pamphlet  from  his  breast-pocket  and 
began  reading.  The  rest  can  be  told  in  the  words 
of  Mr.  Dana: 

"Mr.  Stanton  viewed  this  proceeding  with  great 
impatience,  as  I  could  see,  but  Mr.  Lincoln  paid 
no  attention  to  that.  He  would  read  a  page  or 
story,  pause  to  con  a  new  election  telegram,  and 
then  open  the  book  and  go  ahead  with  a  new  pas 
sage.  Finally  Mr.  Chase '  came  in  and  presently 
Mr.  Whitelaw  Reid,  and  then  the  reading  was  in 
terrupted.  Mr.  Stanton  went  to  the  door  and 
beckoned  me  into  the  next  room.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  fire  of  his  indignation  at  what  seemed 
to  him  to  be  mere  nonsense.  He  could  not  under 
stand,  apparently,  that  it  was  by  the  relief  which 
these  jests  afforded  to  the  strain  of  the  mind 
under  which  Lincoln  had  been  so  long  living,  and 
to  the  natural  gloom  of  a  desponding  tempera 
ment — this  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  prevailing  charac 
teristic — that  the  safety  and  sanity  of  his  intelli 
gence  was  maintained  and  preserved." 

Such  was  Mr.  Charles  A.  Dana's  view  of  the 
foregoing  side  of  Lincoln 's  character,  in  our  opin 
ion  the  correct  view,  gained  by  a  very  competent 


234         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

judge  through  daily  intercourse  with  the  President 
for  a  considerable  time  under  the  most  trying  cir 
cumstances.  Only  one  qualification  we  would  like 
to  make:  Desponding  gloom  was  not  Lincoln's 
prevailing  characteristic,  for  it  did  not  prevail  with 
him,  he  always  overcame  it  in  the  end,  yea,  was 
always  overcoming  it,  transforming  it  into  hope, 
faith,  optimism.  Read  his  writings,  look  into  his 
actions;  he  never  despaired  morally  of  the  extinc 
tion  of  slavery,  nor  institutionally  of  the  preserva 
tion  of  Union  and  Constitution.  At  the  same 
time  melancholy  was  a  dark,  ever-present,  surging 
undercurrent  in  his  soul,  a  temperamental  inherit 
ance,  which  he  had  to  battle  with  incessantly  and 
put  down.  Have  we  not  seen  him  doing  so  al 
ready?  Indeed,  from  this  inner  war  and  its  vic 
tory  flowed  his  main  strength  for  the  great  outer 
war  which  raged  about  him  with  so  many  harass 
ing  fluctuations.  Blue  devils  and  black  were  al 
ways  clutching  him,  but  he  whirled  them  down 
into  their  own  gloomy  Inferno,  showing  undoubt 
edly  many  external  signs  of  the  conflict,  among 
these,  doubtless,  the  reading  of  Nasby.  The  gates 
of  Hell,  to  apply  to  him  one  of  his  scriptural  allu 
sions,  could  not  prevail  against  him.  Dana's 
suggestion,  however,  that  Nasby's  humor  was  one 
of  Lincoln's  ways  of  relieving  his  overburdened 
spirit  holds  good,  and  is  generally  recognized  at 
the  present  time.  The  further  hint,  that  his  sanity 
was  preserved  through  such  a  safety-valve  for  his 


LINCOLN  IN  A  DUEL.  235 

volcanic  emotional  upheavals,  is  also  worthy  of 
the  best  thought  of  the  student  of  Lincoln,  and 
receives  no  little  confirmation  from  certain  experi 
ences  of  Lincoln's  earlier  life,  as  already  narrated. 
Picking  up  again  the  letter  from  the  Lost  Town 
ships,  we  find  that  it  was  not  the  end  of  the  litera 
ture  on  this  subject.  The  fountain  having  been 
tapped,  two  young  ladies,  friends  of  Lincoln,  pro 
duced  a  little  spirt  on  their  own  account,  still  in 
dialect  and  dialogue.  In  this  second  letter  (not 
by  Lincoln,  recollect),  the  country  widow  offers, 
for  the  sake  of  peace,  to  marry  Shields,  whose 
fighting  ambition  is  also  burlesqued;  indeed,  he  is 
half  dared  to  a  duel  in  the  mockery  of  these  two 
irresponsible  maidens.  Then,  again,  that  rich 
theme  of  hand-squeezing  is  introduced,  of  course, 
being  mentioned  no  less  than  four  times  in  the 
brief  epistle.  We  infer  from  the  repeated  stress 
upon  the  matter  that  these  two  young  ladies  must 
have  carried  their  hands  in  a  sling  at  least  three 
days  after  their  first  encounter  with  the  gallant 
Irishman.  Finally  comes  the  third  effusion  by  the 
same  authoresses, '  who  now  drop  prose  and  take 
to  poetry,  to  rhymed  couplets  of  the  Popian  style, 
possibly  suggested  by  the  Dunciad,  celebrating  the 
marriage: 

"  Rebecca  the  widow  has  gained  Erin's  son." 

The  two  young  ladies  who  have  unwittingly 
done  an  historic  deed  by  having  a  hand  in  getting 
Lincoln  into  this  scrape,  are  not  nameless  to  the 


236        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

biographer.  Miss  Todd  (afterwards  Mrs.  Lincoln) 
and  Miss  Jayne  (afterwards  Mrs.  Lyman  Trumbull) 
are  handed  down  to  fame  as  the  rollicking,  bur 
lesquing  young  ladies  who  dared  scoff  at  Shields 
as  duelist,  and  thus,  it  would  seem,  brought  the 
duel  to  a  head.  (There  is  a  question  about  the 
authorship  of  these  letters.  All  three  have  been 
supposed  to  be  the  work  of  Miss  Todd.  But  Lin 
coln  in  his  apology  acknowledges  the  first  only  and 
disclaims  the  others.  Internal  evidence  points 
decidedly  in  the  same  direction). 

All  the  town  began  to  titter  at  Shields,  and  to 
repeat  the  funny  points  of  the  letters,  interspersed 
with  fresh  anecdotes  and  malicious  witticisms,  to 
which  Shields'  roaring  gave  new  zest.  He  could 
not  appear  on  the  street  without  being  the  center 
of  grinning  faces.  It  was  a  situation  that  the  hot 
Irishman  would  meet  by  fight — fight  the. general 
guffaw,  or  at  least  the  source  of  it,  which  Shields 
soon  found  to  be  Lincoln.  Retraction  or  blood  is 
the  alternative  which  he  presents.  Lincoln  refuses 
to  retract  under  a  menace,  and  under  such  an 
"assumption  of  facts."  Various  attempts  at  re 
conciliation  failed,  and  both  parties  proceeded  to 
the  field  of  honor,  which  was  on  a  desert  island  in 
the  Mississippi,  not  far  from  Alton,  to  which 
nobody  was  permitted  to  go  except  the  parties 
concerned. 

Lincoln,  as  the  challenged  party,  had  the  right 
to  select  the  weapons,  and  he  chose  cavalry  broad- 


LINCOLN  IN  A  DUEL.  237 

swords  of  the  largest  size,  well  adapted  to  his 
great  strength  and  the  wide  sweep  of  his  arm. 
Most  suggestive  is  the  second  of  his  preliminaries, 
which  runs  as  follows :  A  strong  plank  is  to  be 
fixed  "between  us,  which  neither  is  to  pass  his  foot 
over  upon  the  forfeit  of  his  life."  (The  seconds, 
seemingly,  are  to  shoot  the  violator  on  the  spot). 
Then  each  has  a  line  which  he  is  not  to  pass,  else 
it  will  be  deemed  a  surrender  of  the  fight. 

Let  us  omit  all  the  outside  details,  which  are 
voluminous  enough,  and  see  if  we  cannot  probe 
at  once  to  the  very  crisis  of  the  affair,  its  turning- 
point  from  war  to  peace.  In  our  judgment  this  is 
found  in  the  words  of  a  spectator  which  Miss  Tar- 
bell  (Life  of  Lincoln  I.,  p.  288)  has  preserved  and 
which  we  shall  quote:  "I  watched  Lincoln  closely 
while  he  sat  on  his  log  awaiting  the  signal  to 
fight.  His  face  was  grave  and  serious.  .  .  . 
Presently  he  reached  over  and  picked  up  one  of 
the  swords,  which  he  drew  from  its  scabbard. 
Then  he  felt  along  the  edge  of  the  weapon  with 
his  thumb,  like  a  barber  feels  the  edge  of  a  razor, 
raised  himself  up  to  his  full  height,  stretched  out 
his  long  arms  and  clipped  off  a  twig  from  above 
his  head  with  the  sword.  There  was  not  another 
man  of  us  who  could  have  reached  anywhere  near 
that  twig." 

Such  was,  we  have  to  think,  the  pivotal  act  of 
the  duel,  whereby  it  was  whisked  about  from  fight 
to  friendship.  For  short  Shields,  "who  could 


238         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

walk  under  Lincoln's  arm/'  must  have  seen  that 
long,  outstretched  sword  of  Destiny  clipping  off 
the  twig  above  with  some  foreboding  of  what  it 
meant;  his  associates  must  have  seen  it,  too,  as  a 
kind  of  prognostication  of  approaching  Fate. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  Lincoln,  sitting  on  his 
log  with  "face  grave  and  serious,"  evidently  think 
ing  and  watching,  seized  the  right  psychologic 
moment  and  enacted  a  brief  prelude  by  way  of 
forewarning,  which  whispers  afar  something  like 
this :  Do  you  see  how  I  can  reach  out  and  tap 
you  at  any  point  without  you  grazing  me  in  re 
turn? 

At  any  rate,  the  duel  came  suddenly  to  an  end. 
Shields  was  pacified,  of  course,  through  the  inter 
vention  of  friends,  and  Lincoln  did  not  need  any 
pacifying.  Both  the  duelists  returned  across  the 
river  to  Alton  on. the  same  boat,  chatting  together 
in  a  free-and-easy  manner.  Report  has  it  that  a 
crimson  garment  was  seen  lying  in  the  boat  by  the 
neck-craning  crowd  on  shore  with  a  horrible  shud 
der;  but  when  lifted  up  the  bloody  face-cloth  was 
found  to  be  a  red  shirt  spread  over  a  log.  It  is 
not  told  who  worked  that  scheme  as  a  finale  bur 
lesquing  the  whole  duel,  or  more  probably,  spun 
a  fitting  yarn  for  the  epilogue  of  the  comedy. 

So  Lincoln  has  played  another  grotesque  part 
in  life,  this  time  on  the  field  of  Honor.  Very 
unwilling  was  his  act,  and  remained  a  repugnant 
memory.  Herndon  reports  him  once  saying:  "I 


LINCOLN  IN  A  DUEL.  239 

did  not  intend  to  hurt  Shields  unless  I  did  so 
clearly  in  self-defence."  Very  possible  seems  his 
assertion:  "I  could  have  split  him  from  the  crown 
of  his  head  to  the  end  of  his  backbone."  That  is 
just  what  he  intended  probably  to  impress  upon 
Shields  at  the  pivotal  moment  by  the  clipping  of 
the  twig  overhead  with  his  sword.  But  why  did 
conscientious,  Quaker-strained  Lincoln  accept  such 
a  challenge?  We  must  deem  him  influenced  by 
the  Kentucky  patriciate  with  whom  he  associated, 
and  who,  like  the  South  generally,  accepted  the 
code  in  the  last  resort.  He  could  not  escape  his 
environment,  which  would  not  let  him  back  down 
at  the  ruffles  of  a  little  Hibernian  fighting-cock. 
Verily  his  grotesquery  has  now  found  its  limit  in  a 
peck  of  trouble.  It  is  curious  that  political  ene 
mies  never  used  this  duel  against  him  in  later 
years,  excepting  possibly  old  Peter  Cartright. 
Why  did  not  Douglas,  who  must  have  known  all 
about  it,  dilate  upon  the  fact,  particularly  at  Free- 
port,  before  an  audience  composed  largely  of  duel- 
hating  New  Englanders?  Possibly  he  feared  Lin 
coln's  boomerang,  for  Douglas  was  also  a  pug 
nacious  little  rooster,  and  had  been  in  many  a 
scrimmage.  During  the  Presidential  election  noth 
ing  seems  to  have  been  heard  of  the  awful  charge 
that  Lincoln  had  offered  to  fight  a  duel  but  never 
fought  it. 

And    now  from  this  one  case  dueling   spreads 
out  and  becomes  epidemic  in  Springfield.    Shields, 


240        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

having  started  on  his  war-dance  with  many  a 
lyrical  saltation  and  exaltation,  sends  a  second 
challenge  to  a  new  offender  who  offers  to  fight  "at 
to-morrow's  sunrise  in  Bob  Allen's  meadow  with 
rifles  at  one  hundred  yards'  distance" — but  no 
shot  again.  Then  the  seconds  to  Lincoln  and 
Shields  get  embroiled  in  the  quarrel  of  their  prin 
cipals,  and  prepare  for  a  bloody  encounter,  which 
ends  in  a  long  and  desperate  paper-war  without 
anybody  getting  hurt.  Says  Lincoln  in  a  letter  to 
his  friend  Speed:  "You  have  learned  of  my  duel 
with  Shields,  and  I  have  now  to  inform  you  that 
the  dueling  business  still  rages  in  this  city.  .  . 
Meanwhile  the  town  is  in  a  ferment  and  a  street- 
fight  somewhat  anticipated."  Truly  grotesquery, 
like  the  laugh,  is  catching,  and  once  started,  goes 
through  the  whole  community.  And  it  is  not  with 
out  danger  to  the  patient,  who  at  least  feels  morti 
fied  after  having  to  play  the  part  of  universal  fool 
before  the  public.  Let  Shields,  if  he  wishes,  act 
out  his  Irish  bulls  and  utter  them,  too,  as  one  may 
hear  even  in  his  challenge,  which  threatens  the 
doing  of  terrible  deeds,  "which  no  one  will  regret 
more  than  myself."  In  fact,  Shields,  in  his  brilliant 
contradictions  and  grandiose  absurdities,  seems  an 
incarnate  Irish  bull  on  the  rampage,  always  run 
ning  the  imminent  danger  of  breaking  its  neck,  yet 
always  lighting  safely  on  its  feet  again.  A  unique 
and  fascinating  talent  it  was,  which  lured  Lincoln 
unconsciously  into  a  kind  of  competition  in  gro- 


LINCOLN  IN  A  DUEL.  241 

tesquery,  in  which  he  was  quite  as  comic  as 
Shields,  though  in  a  different  way.  So  great  and 
keen  was  his  self-ridicule  in  the  matter  that  he 
could  not  bear  to  have  it  recalled,  according  to 
Herndon;  apparently  he  could  not  stand  his  own 
inner  laugh  at  his  grotesque  action. 

But  what  about  the  two  young  ladies  who  had 
in  their  frolic  given  the  last  stroke  toward  bringing 
on  the  duel,  even  if  Lincoln  had  first  set  it  in  mo 
tion?  One  may  be  permitted  to  guess  that  they 
were  in  a  tearfully  repentant  state  of  mind  during 
these  days,  and  made  good  resolutions  to  hold  in 
check  hereafter  their  dangerous  literary  gift.  Great 
must  have  been  their  relief  when  both  the  duelists 
returned  to  Springfield,  the  one  unhurt  and  the 
other  placated.  But  now  rises  to  the  surface  a 
new  strand  of  Lincoln's  Destiny,  hitherto  present 
but  concealed:  Love  is  seen  unfolding  fleetly 
out  of  this  affair  of  Honor.  Miss  Todd  had  been 
betrothed  to  Lincoln,  but  an  estrangement  had  set 
in,  whose  clouds  had  begun  slightly  to  clear  away, 
when  down  upon  them  drops  this  duel  in  which 
both  have  a  part.  Unwittingly  she  had  helped  to 
get  the  man  whom  she  loved  into  what  seemed  a 
great  danger.  But  now  it  is  past,  and  the  torrent 
of  emotion  rushes  rapidly  to  its  goal .  In  a  littte 
more  than  a  month  after  the  duel,  Abraham  Lin 
coln  and  Mary  Todd  were  completely  reconciled, 
re-engaged,  and  united  in  marriage. 

16 


242        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

V. 

Lincoln's  Marriage. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  Lincoln  was  in  the 
process  of  being  whirled  rapidly  into  matrimony 
through  the  duel  with  Shields,  which,  however, 
was  not  directly  about  the  young  lady  at  all. 
Women  have  been  a  prolific  source  of  duels  among 
men;  but  Lincoln  himself  did  not  know  that  the 
real  and  lasting  prize  of  the  contest  was  a  wife. 
This  was  the  serious  and  life-long  outcome,  which 
undoubtedly  had  other  co-operating  conditions 
beside  the  duel.  There  had  been  already  an  en 
gagement,  then  a  breach,  but  finally  a  re-engage 
ment,  followed  speedily  by  a  wedding. 

It  is  recorded  that  on  November  4th,  1842, 
Lincoln  was  married  to  Mary  Todd,  and  thus  en 
tered  upon  a  new  phase  of  life,  we  may  say,  of  in 
stitutional  life.  For  the  Family,  that  intimate  and 
permanent  union  of  one  man  and  one  woman,  of 
which  the  supreme  end  is  to  preserve  and  perpet 
uate  humanity  itself  in  an  institutional  way,  opens 
quite  another  world  to  its  members.  It  settles 
the  individual  hitherto  drifting,  and  holds  him 
fast  to  an  inner  aim,  and  usually  to  an  outer 
locality.  Lincoln  now  casts  anchor  in  the  sea  of 
life  and  roves  no  more,  though  he  floats  a  good 
deal  about  to  the  length  of  his  tether. 

In  fact,  we  may  well  deem  his  marriage  to  be 
the  conclusion  of  what  we  call  his  Apprenticeship. 


LINCOLN'S  MARRIAGE.  243 

He  is  now  thirty-three  years  old  and  more;  he  has 
been  going  to  school  and  taking  a  varied  course; 
he  has  gained  no  little  knowledge  of  the  culture  of 
the  past,  to  be  sure  in  a  very  informal  and  unac- 
ademic  way.  He  has  won  his  profession,  and  got 
ten  it  well  in  hand,  so  that  it  will  give  him  and 
his  a  fair  living.  But  the  greatest  thing  which  he 
has  gotten  is  to  know  the  People  and  their  speech. 
Indeed,  his  whole  life  up  to  this  time  may  be 
deemed  a  communing  with  the  Folk-Soul,  and  the 
learning  how  to  voice  the  same.  He  has  become 
able  to  speak  to  the  People  or  to  make  it  speak 
to  itself  through  him,  to  render  it  aware  of  its  own 
deepest  instinct  and  purpose. 

But  if  one  school  lets  out,  another  takes  in, 
and  the  discipline  of  life  goes  on.  His  first  Period 
ends  in  mariiage,  home,  children;  but  also  his  sec 
ond  Period  begins,  which  is  to  bear  him  beyond 
his  community,  beyond  his  State,  to  his  Nation, 
whose  new  destiny  he  is  to  incorporate  with  his 
own.  But  more  of  this  in  a  later  and  better  con 
nection;  at  present  we  must  touch  upon  the  de 
tails  of  his  nuptials. 

Mary  Todd,  who  becomes  so  deeply  inwoven 
with  Lincoln's  life  as  spouse,  was  born  in  Lexing 
ton,  chief  city  of  Kentucky's  famous  Blue  Grass 
Region,  December  13th,  1818,  being  thus  more 
than  nine  years  younger  than  Lincoln,  and  nearly 
24  years  old  at  her  marriage.  She  came  of  the 
bluest  blood  of  the  old  Kentucky  patriciate,  and 


244         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

it  is  said  that  branches  of  her  genealogical  tree 
could  be  traced  back  to  the  sixth  century.  She 
was  well  educated,  brilliant  in  conversation,  witty, 
but  also  gifted  with  a  sharp  tongue.  She  came 
to  Springfield  in  1839  to  live  with  a  married  sister, 
and  of  course  was  received  in  the  first  society, 
which  was  composed  almost  wholly  of  the  Ken 
tucky  aristocracy. 

Lincoln  became  acquainted  with  her  and  was 
fascinated  by  her  brilliant  qualities.  Not  only 
that,  but  we  have  the  right  to  think  that  he  had 
his  secret  admiration  for  that  long  ancestral 
line  which  he  himself  did  not  possess — he  born  a 
poor  white  of  the  South,  yet  gifted  with  unique 
talent  and  mounting  ambition.  Note  again  those 
high-born  Kentucky  girls  whom  Lincoln  wooed  in 
his  checkered  career  of  courtship — that  certainly 
shows  the  direction  of  his  look  and  of  his  aspira 
tion.  He  evidently  was  going  to  marry  above  his 
class,  plebeian  that  he  was  socially  and  politically. 
He  became  engaged  to  Miss  Todd  in  1840,  though 
her  Springfield  relatives  shook  their  heads  omin 
ously  at  the  match.  "Not  suited  to  each  other  by 
birth  and  education,"  ran  the  whisper  of  the  aris 
tocratic  Kentucky  women  who  knew  both,  and 
who  were  friendly  to  both. 

The  result  was  a  broken  engagement,  seemingly 
on  "that  fatal  first  of  January,  1841."  The  truth 
seems  to  be  that  neither  was  marrying  for  love, 
pure  and  simple,  but  with  an  ulterior  end.  The 


LINCOLN'S  MARRIAGE.  245 

woman  is  declared  to  have  been  very  ambitious, 
and  once  remarked  that  she  was  going  to  have  a 
President  for  husband.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
the  native  talent  of  Lincoln  was  generally  recog 
nized  in  Springfield  at  that  time;  then  he  was  the 
popular  young  fellow  in  town.  Mary  Todd  had 
an  insight  into  his  ability  and  character,  and 
wedded  his  possible  greatness;  and  of  the  two  it 
looks  as  if  she  came  the  nearest  to  having  some 
love  for  its  own  sake — a  streak  of  the  genuine 
article,  amid  all  the  caprices  of  the  spoilt  child. 
As  far  as  is  known  she  had  never  had  a  serious 
case  of  love,  unless  a  snapshot  of  it  in  her  brief 
philandering  with  Douglas. 

Herein  lies  a  difference,  perhaps  the  basic  one, 
between  her  and  Lincoln.  With  him  love  had 
bloomed  once  in  all  its  fullness  and  glory.  Over 
and  over  again  he  has  left  on  record  what  must 
be  deemed  intimations  that  Ann  Rutledge  was 
his  only  love.  The  fact  was  generally  known,  and 
must  have  come  to  the  ears  of  Mary  Todd.  Her 
own  cousin  and  intimate  companion  has  given 
this  account  of  the  matter  which  seems  to  us  the 
best:  Lincoln  "may  have  doubted  whether  he 
was  responding  as  fully  as  a  manly,  generous  na 
ture  should  to  such  affection  as  he  knew  my 
cousin  (Miss  Todd)  was  ready  to  bestow  upon  him. 
And  this  because  it  had  not  the  overmastering 
depth  of  an  early  love.  This  everybody  here 
knows." 


246         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

Such  is  indeed  the  pith  of  the  trouble :  Lincoln 
had  once  given  his  heart  away  and  no  longer  had 
it  to  give.  That  "overmastering  depth  of  an 
early  love"  is  an  allusion  to  Ann  Rutledge,  about 
which  matter  "  every  body  here  knows."  The 
inner  collision  became  so  intense  in  Lincoln  that 
he  fell  sick,  mentally  sick,  and  according  to  his 
Boswell,  reached  quite  the  point  of  insanity.  The 
lafcter's  statement,  however,  is  stoutly  denied  that 
on  the  first  of  January,  1841,  the  wedding  was 
set,  the  bride  was  ready,  the  guests  were  assem 
bled,  but  Lincoln  failed  to  appear,  having  gone 
stark  mad.  So  far  probably  matters  did  not  pro 
ceed,  but  the  engagement  was  broken,  and  Lincoln 
was  plunged  into  a  deep  fit  of  melancholia,  which 
threatened  to  end  in  suicide. 

The  similarity  of  Lincoln's  present  mental  con 
dition  to  that  after  the  death  of  Ann  Rutledge  is 
striking.  He  has  had  a  relapse  to  his  former  sor 
row  through  his  breach  with  Miss  Todd  on  "the 
fatal  first  of  January,  1841."  It  is  indeed  a  sep 
aration  which  sympathetically  brings  up  that  first 
separation  through  death.  In  a  letter  written 
shortly  afterwards  (January  23rd,  1841),  we  have 
Lincoln's  description  of  himself:  "I  am  now  the 
most  miserable  man  living.  If  what  I  feel  were 
distributed  equally  to  the  whole  human  family, 
there  would  not  be  one  cheerful  face  on  the 
earth.  Whether  I  shall  ever  be  better,  I  cannot 
tell;  I  awfully  forebode  I  shall  not.  To  remain 


LINCOLN'S  MARRIAGE.  247 

as  I  am  is  impossible;  I  must  die  or  be  better" 
(Works  I.,  p.  45).  This  last  sentence  sounds  like 
a  threat  of  suicide. 

Again  that  emotional  volcano  which  lay  al 
ways  smouldering  in  Lincoln's  nature  is  having  a 
violent  eruption.  But  his  former  experience  has 
taught  him  to  be  Fate-compeller  over  that  most 
perilous  part  of  himself — his  feelings.  And  in 
these  days  the  record  shows  that  he  went  about 
his  own  business  and  that  of  the  Legislature,  of 
which  he  was  a  member.  Intense  self-suppres 
sion  he  must  have  exercised,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  session  he  obtains  relief  by  a  visit  to  Kentucky 
with  his  friend  Speed,  who  there  falls  in  love  him 
self,  becomes  engaged,  and  passes  through  a  spell 
of  melancholia  similar  to  that  of  Lincoln.  One 
may  think  that  Speed  must  have  caught  it  from 
his  deep  sympathy  with  his  suffering  friend.  At 
any  rate  Lincoln  is  called  upon  to  give  in  turn 
consolation  for  the  mental  malady  under  which  he 
himself  has  been  bowed  down;  in  relieving  another 
he  obtains  relief.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  Speed  and 
his  dark-eyed  Fanny  were  married  in  February, 
1842,  and  the  husband,  fully  restored  from  his 
gloom,  declares  in  a  letter  to  Lincoln  that  "I  am 
far  happier  than  I  ever  expected  to  be."  Let 
him,  therefore,  be  dismissed  from  the  hospital, 
with  that  dangerous  sympathy  of  his,  all  of  which 
can  now  go  out  in  harmless  caresses  toward  his 
wife.  But  Lincoln  has  no  such  vent  for  his  emo- 


248         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

tions,  and  hence  we  hear  of  relapses  to  gloom  on 
account  of  "the  never-absent  idea  that  there 
is  one  still  unhappy  whom  I  have  contributed 
to  make  so.  That  still  kills  my  soul.  I  cannot 
but  reproach  myself  for  even  wishing  to  be  happy 
while  she  is  otherwise.'' 

In  these  words  (written  more  than  a  year  after 
the  rupture  of  his  engagement)  we  catch  a  glimpse 
of  the  bitter  conflict  still  raging  in  Lincoln's  breast. 
He  is  aware  that  he  has  received  a  love  which  he 
cannot  requite,  that  he  has  roused  an  emotion  for 
which  there  is  in  his  power  no  true  return.  "That 
still  kills  my  soul,"  and  keeps  calling  up  reproaches 
"for  even  wishing  to  be  happy."  Truly  he  has 
become  more  conscious  than  ever,  just  through 
this  experience,  that  he  bears  in  his  heart  an  im 
mortal  love  for  another,  who  has  vanished.  Still 
after  some  five  years  this  new  attachment  crosses 
his  path,  very  different  in  kind,  still  an  attach 
ment,  which,  however,  he  feels  to  be  relatively  a 
terrestrial,  mortal  affair.  What  is  his  duty?  In 
the  pain  of  the  struggle  we  have  already  heard 
him  calling  himself  "the  most  miserable  man 
living." 

Tender-hearted  Speed,  a  genius  in  sympathy^ 
who  responded  so  deeply  to  Lincoln's  conflict  at 
Springfield,  and  helped  to  heal  his  lacerated  spirit 
by  consolation,  carries  the  echoes  of  his  friend's 
conflict  with  him  to  Kentucky  and  falls  into  a 
similar  state  himself.  So  Lincoln  writes  to  him: 


LINCOLN'S  MARRIAGE.  249 

"I  know  what  the  painful  point  with  you  is  at  all 
times  when  you  are  unhappy :  it  is  an  apprehen 
sion  that  you  do  not  love  her  (your  Fanny)  as  you 
should."  Verily  this  is  Lincoln's  own  trouble 
which  Speed  has  so  often  had  to  soothe  with  his 
allaying  power  of  sympathy.  Now  Lincoln's  turn 
has  come  to  perform  the  same  priestly  office  for 
his  suffering  friend,  which  he  does  in  another  letter 
pointing  out  "indubitable  evidence  of  your  undy 
ing  affection  for  her"  in  the  crushing  anxiety  of 
the  lover  on  account  of  a  little  fit  of  illness  she 
had.  So  Lincoln  pronounces  his  anxious  friend  to 
have  shown  the  ultimate  test,  "undying  affection/' 
concerning  which  the  latter  had  been  in  a  dark 
spell  of  doubt,  which  he  soon  gets  over,  winding 
up  the  matter  by  marriage,  as  already  reported. 

But  how  about  Lincoln?  In  the  same  letter  he 
gives  a  brief,  quite  sulphurous  glare  of  his  torment : 
"You  know  the  Hell  I  have  suffered  on  this  point, 
and  how  tender  I  am  upon  it."  He  too  has  an 
"undying  affection"  which  has  collided  evidently 
with  his  betrothal  and  broken  it,  precipitating  the 
poor  sinner  into  "the  Hell  I  have  suffered."  But 
he  is  seemingly  mastering  his  demonic  emotions, 
and  slowly  asserting  himself  anew  as  Fate-eom- 
peller.  So  we  rejoice  at  this  gleam  of  sunshine 
shooting  through  the  clouds  in  the  same  letter : 
"I  have  been  quite  clear  of  the  hypo  since  you  left, 
even  better  than  I  was  along  in  the  fall,"  espe 
cially  so  (we  may  add)  since  I  have  been  adminis- 


250         ABRAHAM  LIXCOLX—PART  FIRST. 

tering  the  remedial  consolation  for  my  own  mal 
ady  to  you,  my  friend,  which  malady,  I  imagine, 
I  must  have  imparted  to  you  through  your  sym 
pathy. 

So  we  catch  in  these  two  years  (1841-2)  more  of 
the  inner  soul-life  of  Lincoln  than  is  visible  at  any 
other  time.  Through  the  preservation  of  a  few 
letters  hi  which  he  opens  his  heart  both  for  re 
ceiving  and  giving  sympathy,  we  see  in  brief 
flashes  what  is  going  on  there.  He  is  working 
through  a  new  and  peculiar  conflict  of  Love,  hav 
ing  his  own  soul  as  the  arena  for  both  sides  whose 
shock  of  battle  shakes,  even  if  it  does  not  over 
turn,  the  throne  of  reason.  But  we  can  also  see 
him  slowly  emerging  from  the  dark  chaos  of  his 
emotional  war  as  Fate-compeller  again,  in  a  faint 
crepuscular  promise  of  coming  victory. 

But  behold!  another  of  those  nodal  interven 
tions  hi  the  affairs  of  men  which  upheave  revolu 
tions  and  evoke  new  epochs  in  life.  Down  plumps 
the  Shields  duel  upon  Lincoln  while  he  is  engaged 
in  compelling  the  Fates  of  Feeling  and  winning  a 
rational  mastery  of  himself.  At  once  there  breaks 
up  a  fresh  overbearing  swirl  of  the  undercurrents 
of  the  soul.  The  duel  with  all  its  concomitants 
and  echoes  in  other  duels  and  in  manifold  reports 
and  publications,  fills  full  of  excitements  the 
months  of  September-October,  1842,  and  produces 
an  unceasing  public  din.  But  the  real,  though  hid 
den  noiseless  fact  of  it  for  us  is  that  Lincoln,  in  the 


LINCOLN'S  MARRIAGE.  251 

process  of  dueling,  is  also  in  the  process  of  getting 
married.  Mary  Todd,  having  unconsciously  gotten 
Lincoln  into  this  dangerous  scrape,  could  not  have 
been  without  a  strong  access  of  anxiety  and  re 
morse,  which  had  the  power  of  rousing  afresh  her 
suppressed  love,  for  it  seems  to  be  agreed  that  she 
loved  Lincoln  and  had  chosen  him  against  the  ad 
vice  of  her  relatives.  This  choice  of  hers  Lincoln 
knew,  for  we  have  heard  him  reproach  himself  for 
having  contributed  to  make  one  loving  human 
heart  unhappy:  "That  still  kills  my  soul."  To 
be  sure  before  the  duel  there  had  been  a  partial 
reconciliation,  or  rather  an  acceptance  on  the  part 
of  both  of  their  separated  lot;  they  had  even 
friendly  meetings  at  the  house  of  a  common  ac 
quaintance,  editor  Francis,  where  the  letters 
which  gave  rise  to  the  challenge  of  Shields  were 
concocted.  But  we  have  to  think  that  the  duel 
itself,  with  its  attendant  emotions  breaking  over 
all  restraints,  was  what  brought  about  the  sudden 
re-engagement,  and  the  equally  sudden  marriage. 
What  now  of  the  future  of  this  most  important 
step?  Not  much  need  be  added;  already  we  have 
given  certain  prognosticating  lines  of  what  is  to 
come,  in  the  character  of  the  woman,  we  hope 
with  gentleness,  yet  with  justice.  One  more  trait, 
now  to  be  developed  fully  in  the  life  of  the  family, 
has  to  be  given  to  the  picture:  she  was  not  lovely 
in  her  love  toward  the  loved  one.  A  great  mis 
fortune,  to  our  mind,  in  any  woman  is  it  when 


252         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

her  very  love  undoes  itself  by  becoming  more  ex 
acting,  querulous,  sharp-tongued  the  stronger  it  is. 
In  its  very  power  it  seems  to  turn  to  a  kind  of 
hate.  Unlovely  in  her  love,  or  liable  to  get  so — 
such  is  the  supreme  fatality  in  this  woman's  na 
ture.  Abraham  Lincoln  is  to  be  tested  in  the  fire 
of  that  kind  of  a  discipline  henceforth  to  the  end 
of  his  life. 

But  how  about  Lincoln  himself  in  this  new  rela 
tion?  He  brings  to  it  a  different  sort  of  allegiance, 
which  could  hardly  help  provoking  in  the  woman 
a  kind  of  immortal  jealousy  as  her  counterstroke 
to  his  immortal  love  for  another.  This  other  love 
of  his  she  knew  well,  in  fact,  "this  everybody  here 
knows,"  as  her  own  cousin  and  associate  declared. 
So  Lincoln's  heart  in  his  domestic  relation  was  the 
abode  of  two  Loves,  not  always  internally  harmo 
nious — Love  as  an  ever- welling  passion  and  Love 
as  a  reflective  obligation,  Love  as  ideal  and  Love 
as  real;  or,  we  may  call  them  Love  the  beautiful 
and  Love  the  dutiful.  Both  he  possessed  within 
himself  in  ever-present  activity,  often  with  discord 
enough.  Then  between  the  man  and  wife  were 
striking  contrasts  sufficient  under  a  little  tiff  to 
set  the  soul  ajar — contrasts  in  birth,  education, 
temperament,  physique,  even  in  politics,  for  Mrs. 
Lincoln  is  said  by  Herndon  to  have  been  decidedly 
pro-slavery  in  sentiment,  the  result  of  her  South 
ern  breeding.  That  certainly  would  not  comport 
with  Lincoln's  deepest  spirit  or  with  his  politi- 


LINCOLN'S  MARRIAGE.  253 

cal    career,  or  with  his  supreme  world-historical 
task. 

Thus  Lincoln  has  a  new  Fate-compelling  ordeal 
put  upon  him,  life-long,  ever-recurring.  The 
alternative  must  have  presented  itself:  Shall  I 
requite,  paying  back  like  for  like,  and  thus  end 
in  the  divorce  court;  or  shall  I  transfigure  this 
relation  also,  elevating  it  into  Love  universal? 
There  is  no  doubt  that  Lincoln  fled  often  from 
his  real  to  his  ideal  affection  as  his  relief  from 
domestic  discord,  passing  through  the  vale  of 
gloom  on  the  way.  But  he  always  came  out  of 
it  again  into  the  serene  atmosphere  of  his  own 
highest  nature,  being  driven  to  transcend  the  bit 
ter  reality.  This  lesson  he  had  already  learned  by 
his  former  terrible  experience  in  the  evanishment 
of  the  first  loved  one.  It  was  the  strange  lot  of 
Mary  Lincoln  to  keep  ever  alive  Ann  Rutledge  in 
the  bosom  of  her  husband.  She  drove  him  to 
take  refuge  from  her  temper  and  conduct  in  the 
memory  of  his  ideal  woman,  who  awoke  in  him 
universal  Love.  The  wife  was  not  a  Fate-com- 
peller;  she  did  not  make  her  husband  forget  in 
her  and  in  her  home  the  lost  one,  but  rather 
forced  him  to  bring  back  the  image  of  the  past 
love  in  an  ever-renewing  transfiguration.  Cer 
tainly  toward  her  he  had  to  be  always  exercising 
his  forgiveness,  his  charity,  his  tender-heartedness, 
which  thus  became  his  habit  toward  all,  his  uni 
versal  Love  as  ever-present  character.  In  this 


254       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  —  PART  FIRST. 

way  she  has  an  abiding  place  in  his  training,  in 
this  Apprenticeship,  whose  varied  phases  we  are 
seeking  to  grasp. 

Still,  before  parting  from  her  we  must,  in  jus 
tice,  recall  that  Lincoln  did  not  bring  to  her  "the 
over-mastering  depth  of  an  early  love,"  he  laid 
not  on  her  altar  a  whole  heart's  unreserved  sacri 
fice.  She  was  second  and  remained  second,  and 
alas !  through  her  own  deed  she  kept  herself  sec 
ond,  being  unable  to  transcend  the  limit  which 
her  own  fatal  temper  put  upon  her,  unable  in  her 
woman's  way  also  to  transfigure  Love.  That  the 
man  on  his  side  did,  and  won  the  reward. 

VI. 

Retrospective. 

Truly  a  stormy  courtship  Lincon  has  experienced 
at  Springfield — what  with  Douglas,  what  with 
Shields,  what  with  the  young  lady,  what  with 
himself.  But  at  last  he  has  gotten  to  port  and  is 
anchored  for  life,  not  without  breakers  often  run 
ning  high  into  the  harbor  and  dashing  the  fastened 
vessel  around  within  the  length  of  its  rope  which 
is  often  sorely  tested.  So  we  have  come  to  the 
end  of  one  considerable  cycle  of  Lincoln's  life  when 
another  begins.  Or,  we  may  say  that  the  novel, 
after  many  ups  and  downs  of  the  hero,  many  sun 
bursts  and  eclipses  of  love,  has  wound  up  in  mar 
riage,  the  time-honored  conclusion  of  the  ro 


RETROSPECTIVE.  255 

mance.  But  behold !  if  the  one  novel  ends,  just  in 
that  end  another  begins  with  its  fresh  batch  of 
problems,  adventures,  sunlit  radiances  and  hapless 
tears.  Truly  in  this  as  in  so  many  other  cases 
the  end  is  also  the  beginning. 

Indeed,  the  career  of  Lincoln  at  Springfield,  or 
at  least  this  part  of  it,  seems  to  assume  the  form 
of  the  novel  as  its  expression.  A  novel  of  Love 
Lincoln  has  now  acted  out  in  many  of  its  details; 
a  better  novel  it  is,  as  we  think,  and  certainly 
more  lasting,  than  any  of  those  old  thin  fictions 
of  Mrs.  Lee  Hentz  which  he  used  to  devour.  We 
have  often  noted  that  Lincoln  delighted  in  fable 
story,  apologue,  generally  in  fictional  expression; 
in  fact,  it  was  this  gift  which  got  him  into  his 
trouble  with  Shields,  through  that  bright  skit  of  a 
"Letter  from  the  Lost  Townships,"  of  course  a 
written  fiction,  which,  however,  had  the  power  of 
making  itself  the  pivot  of  an  acted  fiction,  if  the 
name  be  allowed,  of  much  larger  proportions. 
Thus  Lincoln's  own  little  novelette  of  the  country 
widow  gets  dangerously  complicated  with  his  big 
flesh-and-blood  novel  at  Springfield,  of  which  he 
is  the  unwilling  hero,  both  in  its  comic  and  its 
serious  parts,  for  it  must  have  both  if  he  is  the 
central  figure.  A  novelistic  form,  then,  Lincoln's 
career  takes  at  this  period,  moving  into  it  and 
with  it  naturally,  altogether  spontaneously,  as  if 
it  were  the  native  garment  of  the  man's  soul-life 
just  now. 

Very  different  was  the  idyl  of  New  Salem  from 


256         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  FIRST. 

this  novel  of  Springfield.  The  locality,  the  social 
environment,  gives  the  artistic  atmosphere  in 
which  the  individual  is  placed  and  acts  his  part. 
Lincoln,  the  central  character  whom  we  are  fol 
lowing  and  seeking  to  utter,  passes  from  one  to 
the  other  internally  as  well  as  externally.  The 
idyllic  life  of  New  Salem  he  experiences  to  the 
full  and  then  quits,  has  to  quit,  and  to  move  on 
into  the  novelistic  life  of  Springfield  with  its  far 
more  highly  developed  society.  From  this  point 
of  view  we  may  conceive  him  as  passing  through 
a  line  of  literary  forms  with  their  corresponding 
contents  of  living  experience.  Hardly  can  we 
Homerize  Springfield  as  we  did  New  Salem;  it  will 
not  let  us,  being  in  a  different  social  stage  and 
demanding  a  different  utterance  of  itself.  Yet 
each  has  its  hero,  yea,  the  same  hero;  each  its 
conflict  of  love,  each,  too,  a  certain  grotesque 
coloring,  even  in  the  tragedy  of  it.  But  enough! 
the  idyl  has  ended,  and  the  novel  has  ended,  at 
least  in  this  part. 

And  still  further,  Lincoln's  Apprenticeship  has 
ended,  or  what  we  regard  as  such  in  this  bio 
graphic  exposition.  In  the  main  he  has  been 
going  to  school  to  the  Folk-Soul  of  the  North- 
West,  whose  speech,  whose  ways  of  thinking,  in 
general,  whose  spirit  he  has  come  to  know;  we 
may  add,  whose  deepest  unconscious  aspiration 
he  has  learned  to  feel,  indeed,  to  forefeel.  To  be 
sure  he  will  have  a  time  of  estrangement  from 
the  Folk-Soul,  whence  results  a  better  acquaint- 


RETROSPECTIVE.  257 

ance  with  it,  followed  by  a  new  and  final  recon 
ciliation.  All  this  lies  in  the  future,  and  need  not 
be  further  unfolded  here. 

Such,  in  a  wide  sense,  has  been  Lincoln's  edu 
cation.  Could  its  place  have  been  taken  by  a 
College  or  University?  The  question  has  been 
often  discussed  whether  an  academic  training 
would  have  been  an  advantage  or  a  drawback  to 
Lincoln  for  his  work.  Professors,  College  Presi 
dents  and  University  Chancelors  will  naturally 
look  at  the  matter  from  one  side;  men  of  affairs 
will,  on  the  whole,  be  likely  to  lean  to  the  other 
side.  The  pith  of  the  solution  must  penetrate  to 
the  nature  of  academic  life  with  its  peculiar  dis 
cipline.  Does  it  have  a  tendency  to  produce  a 
separation,  and  indeed  an  alienation  from  the 
popular  way  of  thinking,  from  full  sympathy  with 
the  Folk-Soul?  If  the  Hall  of  Learning  is  in 
tended  to  withdraw  the  individual  from  his  ordi 
nary  social  environment  and  to  put  him  into  a 
new  and  different  world,  then  its  method  of  edu 
cation  is  just  opposite  to  that  of  Lincoln,  whose 
Apprenticeship  is  directly  to  the  People,  whom  he 
must  learn  to  know  to  the  bottom,  and  who  are, 
therefore,  his  main  course  of  study.  The  way  he 
took  was,  doubtless,  the  best  way  for  training 
him  to  his  task;  possibly  it  was  not  the  only  way, 
though  this  may  be  questioned.  Still  it  is  highly 
probable  that  no  school  would  have  wrecked  Lin 
coln's  career,  not  even  a  University. 

17 


Seconb. 


In  general  the  great  fact  of  this  Part  Second 
now  before  us  is  that  Lincoln  rises  to  the  Nation, 
participates  in  the  soul  of  the  Nation,  and  finally 
becomes  the  voice  of  the  Nation  and  its  chosen 
leader.  He  separates  from  the  Single-State  to 
which  his  political  career  has  been  hitherto  con 
fined,  and  moves  forward  into  the  United-States 
as  a  whole,  grasping  and  formulating  its  problem. 
From  the  Folk-Soul  not  only  of  Illinois  but  of  the 
Union-born  Free-States  of  the  North-  West  he  has 
(258) 


LINCOLN'S  NATIONAL  CALL.  259 

next  to  pass  to  the  Folk-Soul  of  the  total  Nation 
and  get  acquainted  with  it  also,  for  it  is  what  he 
has  ultimately  to  deal  with  and  to  lead  into  its 
new  Order.  His  Apprenticeship  to  his  own  im 
mediate  State  and  Section  he  has  fairly  served 
and  it  is  now  to  be  transcended;  he  knows  his 
people  well  and  can  speak  to  them  in  their  own 
dialect,  and  moreover  has  begun  to  feel  in  ad 
vance,  if  not  to  see,  the  place  of  the  North- 
Western  Folk-Soul  in  the  coming  evolution  of  the 
Nation. 

Of  course  this  separation  from  his  own  does  not 
mean  that  he  leaves  them  behind ;  he  is  not  going 
to  quit  his  State  and  the  free  North-West.  On 
the  contrary  he  will  take  them  along  with  him  to 
the  national  Capital  and  install  them  in  it,  or  at 
least  their  deepest  principle.  Lincoln  as  their  rep 
resentative  will  indeed  make  them  over  into  the 
Nation,  but  the  unique  fact  of  his  career  is  that 
he  will  make  the  Nation  over  into  them  in  its  ap 
proaching  transformation.  The  full  development 
of  this  process  belongs  to  the  future  of  the  pres 
ent  biography ;  here,  however,  we  may  throw  out 
a  faint  glimpse  of  it  beforehand  in  the  statement 
that  all  the  States,  free  and  slave,  are  to  become, 
transcendently  through  Lincoln,  both  Union-born 
and  free,  such  as  are  already  the  States  of  the 
North- West,  through  their  very  birth. 

The  sweep  of  this  Second  Part  of  Lincoln's  life 
we  put  under  the  rubric  of  his  National  Call,  or 


260       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Vocation,  which  deserves  a  word  of  explanation. 
He  hears  an  inner  call  to  go  to  Washington  and 
there  to  make  himself  national,  after  having  served 
his  time  in  the  Legislature  of  his  State.  Such  a 
man  the  Nation  also  calls,  for  it  needs  him  and 
must  test  him  at  the  Capital.  This  testing  Lin 
coln  undergoes  with  results  hereafter  to  be  told. 
But  the  deepest  fact  of  his  National  Call  is  that 
he  becomes  the  Nation's  voice  and  calls  it  to  the 
supreme  world-historical  task  of  the  Age.  Already 
in  the  debate  with  Douglas  he  has  risen  to  be  na 
tional  and  utters  the  great  impending  duty.  Fi 
nally  the  Nation  calls  him  to  be  its  leader  in  the 
crisis  of  its  existence  and  elects  him  its  President. 
Therewith  enters  a  new  period  of  his  life. 

Lincoln  thus  rises  in  the  present  Period  out  of 
the  State  to  the  Nation;  but  when  he  gets  to  the 
head  of  the  political  organism  he  has  a  great 
fresh  experience.  The  United-States  he  finds,  if 
not  quite  disunited,  yet  deeply  rifted  and  going 
toward  disunion.  Reaching  the  Capital  at  Wash 
ington,  he  realizes  that  this  Nation  is  double  and 
separative — a  fact  which  he  knew  from  a  distance 
at  Springfield,  but  which  he  there  did  not  and 
could  not  realize.  Slave-States  and  Free-States 
are  the  two  contradictory  elements  composing  this 
Union — the  oil  and  water  of  our  political  compo 
sition.  Moreover  in  number  the  two  kinds  of 
States  are  about  equal,  and  seek  to  remain  equal 
as  regards  the  admission  of  new  States.  Thus  a 


LINCOLN'S  NATIONAL  CALL.  261 

line  of  division  runs  through  the  Union  from  East 
to  West,  and  insists  strongly  upon  continuing 
itself  to  the  Pacific  in  the  new  territory  won  by 
the  Mexican  War. 

At  this  point  the  time's  searching  struggle 
probes  down  to  the  deepest  fact  of  the  Federal 
Union,  namely,  that  it  is  productive  of  new  States 
and  thus  perpetually  self-creative.  Hitherto  it  has 
produced  both  Slave-States  and  Free-States, 
double  births  of  black  and  white.  Shall  this  two 
fold  and  contradictory  generation  go  on?  That  is 
really  the  national  problem  into  which  Lincoln 
plumps  down  when  he  alights  in  Washington  as 
representative.  The  South  is  saying  that  the 
Double  Nation  in  its  pivotal  function  as  State- 
producing  is  not  to  be  changed,  else  the  Slave- 
States  will  dissolve  the  Union  and  go  ahead  alone. 
The  two  sections  are  bickering  over  the  new  lands 
gotten  from  Mexico;  which  kind  of  States  shall 
they  be  when  they  enter  the  Union?  Shall 
the  Union  be  Slave-State  producing,  or  Free-State 
producing,  or  both?  It  is  evident  that  the  prob 
lem  reaches  down  to  a  transformation  of  the  Union 
from  its  hitherto  dualistic  character. 

Moreover  this  is  just  the  problem  which  Lincoln 
is  to  work  over  and  settle  within  himself  during 
the  present  Period  of  his  life.  In  general,  we 
have  already  seen  his  theoretic  opposition  to  sla 
very,  notably  in  his  legislative  Protest  of  1837. 
But  the  subject  has  now  become  overwhelmingly 


262       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

practical,  and  Lincoln  in  Congress  begins  to  deal 
with  it  as  the  fundamental  question  of  the  Nation. 
He  there  takes  his  stand  that  the  Federal 
Union  should  be  productive  of  Free-States.  Such 
is  the  meaning  of  his  many  votes  for  the  Wilmot 
Proviso.  This  we  may  deem  the  political  instinct 
which  he  bears  out  of  the  Free-States  of  the 
North- West.  In  their  case  and  in  their  case  alone 
the  Union  has  been  Free-State  producing,  and 
this  their  birth-mark  Lincoln  carries  with  him  to 
Washington  impressed  on  his  own  soul.  And  we 
may  add,  this  is  what  he  is  to  nationalize  in  his 
career;  chiefly  through  him  is  the  Nation  to  be 
come  Free-State  producing  only,  and  thus  to  wipe 
out  its  ever-conflicting  dualism. 

Let  us  note,  then,  the  striking  difference  at  the 
present  time  between  the  North- West  and  the  Na 
tion  as  a  whole.  The  one  is  united,  composed 
of  free  homeogeneous  States  born  of  the  Union; 
but  the  other  is  divided,  double,  composed  of 
heterogeneous  States,  free  and  slave.  The  ideal 
United-States,  which  is  to  go  forth  and  make 
itself  real,  transforming  the  old  Union  into  its 
image,  lies  in  the  North- West,  and  Lincoln  is  its 
typical  man  or  hero,  who  chiefly  works  the  grand 
transformation. 

But  not  yet ;  he  is  to  pass  through  his  prepara 
tory  discipline.  He  first  becomes  as  dualistic  as 
the  Nation,  in  becoming  national;  if  he  votes  for 
the  Wilmot  Proviso,  he  also  votes  for  a  party 


LINCOLN'S  NATIONAL  CALL.  263 

which  ignores  it,  and  against  a  party  which  recog 
nizes  it.  In  consequence  of  such  a  scission  in 
thought  and  conduct,  he  passes  into  a  peculiar 
eclipse  and  time  of  subsidence,  till  he  emerges  at 
the  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Then 
he  ascends  into  a  new  epoch  in  which  he  becomes 
the  voice  of  the  Age,  proclaiming  that  this  Nation 
shall  henceforth  produce  only  Free-States.  Such 
is  his  Message  to  his  People,  in  which  he,  national 
izing  himself  anew,  rises  into  the  realm  of  the 
World's  History. 

Accordingly  Lincoln,  mounting  to  the  Nation, 
finds  it  to  be  double,  and  this  doubleness  he  ac 
cepts  throughout  what  we  call  his  Second  Period. 
He  realizes  that  it  was  born  double,  and  that  it 
was  established  double  in  the  Constitution,  which 
he  does  not  propose  to  overthrow  or  even  to  alter. 
Still  he  has  different  attitudes  toward  this  fact 
during  the  present  Period — three  main  attitudes, 
as  we  see  them.  First  he  becomes  aware  of  the 
national  dualism  through  his  Congressional  career, 
and  appropriates  it,  making  it,  so  to  speak,  his 
own  dualism  as  a  national  man.  So  he  accepts 
through  compromise  the  Federal  Union  not  only 
as  actually  double  but  as  creatively  double, 
though  with  a  deep  inner  protest,  which  ham 
strings  him  politically  and  for  a  time  drives  out  of 
politics  into  an  eclipse.  Finally,  at  the  Repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  he  takes  his  third  atti 
tude  toward  the  Double  Nation,  that  it,  though 


264        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

it  be  double,  both  slave  and  free,  must  produce 
singly,  begetting  hereafter  only  Free-States.  Dur 
ing  these  eighteen  years  (his  Second  Period),  he 
will  show  an  evolution  through  the  foregoing  three 
different  stages  or  attitudes. 

Moreover,  he  attains  during  this  Period  his 
pivotal  conviction  that  the  Double  Nation  cannot 
continue  such,  but  must  move  out  of  its  dualism 
into  unity.  A  famous  saying  of  his  runs:  "It  will 
become  all  one  thing,  or  all  the  other, "  all  slave, 
or  all  free.  The  half-and-half  time  is  drawing  to 
a  close:  "This  Nation  cannot  endure  half-slave 
and  half-free."  Still  we  are  to  consider  that  Lin 
coln  during  this  entire  Second  Period  accepts  the 
Double  Nation  as  intrenched  in  Law  and  Consti 
tution.  He  holds,  however,  that  that  its  genera 
tive  power  as  State-creating  can  be  made  single 
constitutionally,  and  the  increase  of  Slave-States 
thus  be  stopped.  But  he  does  not  intend  to  touch 
the  already  existent  Slave-States.  So,  between 
his  conviction  and  his  action  there  is  a  gap  still ; 
though  he  believes  that  this  Nation  cannot  con 
tinue  half-and-half,  he  is  unable  now  to  help  it, 
during  the  present  Period.  But  the  World-Spirit 
has  for  once  gotten  in  a  hurry,  and  soon  whirls 
Lincoln,  its  supreme  protagonist,  at  first  against  his 
will,  into  a  conflict  in  which  he  will  realize  to  the 
full  his  prophetic  maxim  that  this  Nation  must  be 
come  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other.  And  he  finally 
succeeds  in  making  it  all  one  thing — all  Free-States. 


LINCOLN'S  NATIONAL  CALL.  265 

Looking  back  again  to  the  previous  Part,  to 
the  Apprenticeship,  we  see  that  it  is  preparatory, 
putting  its  main  stress  upon  the  How,  while  the 
present  Part  is  to  emphasize  the  What.  Having 
fairly  learned  how  to  reach  the  Folk-Soul,  Lincoln 
must  next  tell  it  what  it  has  to  do.  To  be  sure 
it  already  feels  the  message  of  the  time,  but  it 
must  be  made  conscious  of  it,  and  accept  it  as  its 
own.  Instinctively  it  bears  the  impress  of  the 
Age,  of  the  World-Spirit,  but  that  dumb  instinct 
must  be  elevated  into  clear  knowledge  through 
the  voice  of  the  mediating  orator,  who  speaks  to 
the  People  the  behest  of  Civilization.  Such  an 
epochal  Talker  Lincoln  is  to  become  in  the  present 
Period,  especially  toward  the  last  of  it  in  his  de 
bate  with  Douglas.  His  call  is  to  the  Nation  that 
it  put  itself  in  line  with  Universal  History,  obey 
ing  the  injunction  of  the  World-Spirit.  So  he 
makes  the  People  aware  of  its  true  vocation;  in 
deed,  the  People  becomes  self-aware  through  the 
voice  of  its  Great  Man,  who  tells  to  it  its  own 
deepest  purpose  and  aspiration,  even  if  previously 
quite  unconscious  of  the  same. 

Into  the  national  vortex  of  struggle  Lincoln  is 
to  be  drawn  and  whirled  around  during  the  pres 
ent  Period,  discovering  in  his  experience  the  piv 
otal  difference  between  his  own  State  along  with 
the  North-West  and  the  United  States  as  a  whole. 
Accordingly  the  reader  is  now  to  make  a  vicarious 
pilgrimage  of  evolution  through  the  Period  of  the 


266      ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

dual  Lincoln  and  the  dual  Nation.  At  the  same 
time  he  must  not  neglect  to  observe  that  each  is 
moving  toward  unity  through  the  other — the  man 
through  the  Nation  and  the  Nation  through  the 
man.  Each  overcomes  its  dualism  through  the 
other;  the  leader  is  primordially  inspired  by  the 
Folk-Soul  to  a  new  Union,  and  then  he  leads  the 
Folk-Soul  to  make  that  Union  institutional, 
whereby  he  gives  to  it  an  enduring  reality. 

And  in  this  preparatory  outlook  let  us  not  fail 
to  direct  the  eye  upon  that  other  great  political 
character,  complementary  to  Lincoln,  yet  anti 
thetic  physically  and  spiritually.  Somehow  they 
cannot  be  wholly  sundered  in  that  ultimate  view 
which  rises  to  universality.  Opposites  they  do  in 
deed  remain,  but  still  they  are  halves  of  a  larger 
whole,  and  unfold  with  each  other  in  a  kind  of 
symmetrical  contradiction.  Accompanying  Lin 
coln  as  the  shadow  of  his  other  Self,  or  his  op 
posing  genius,  and  circling  with  him  through  this 
entire  Period  to  its  last  point  of  time,  moves  his 
antitype  Douglas,  as  if  both  belonged  together 
like  the  obverse  and  reverse  sides  or  incarnations 
of  one  greater  spirit — greater  than  either  and  em 
bracing  both.  The  representative  counterparts  of 
the  one  supreme  movement  of  the  Nation,  they 
seem  inseparably  twinned,  yet  diametrically  polar 
ized.  Very  deep  runs  the  synthesis  in  these  two 
antitheses.  To  the  eye  of  History,  Lincoln  cannot 
do  without  Douglas,  nor  can  Douglas  do  without 


LINCOLN'S  NATIONAL  CALL.  267 

Lincoln.  It  is  really  Douglas  who,  all  unconscious, 
gives  to  Lincoln  his  supreme  opportunity  to  be 
come  national,  yea,  world-historical  through  the 
Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise;  and  it  is 
really  Lincoln  who,  all  unconscious,  gives  to 
Douglas  his  supreme  opportunity  to  do  his  great 
est  national  deed  in  support  of  Union  and  Con 
stitution.  Joined  in  a  bond  of  reciprocal  opposi 
tion,  each  circles  his  orbit  in  the  one  vaster  pro 
cess  of  the  Nation  till  they  both  at  last  come  to 
gether  and  interlock  in  their  single  basic  love  of 
country. 

So  we  can  well  title  Lincoln  and  Douglas  after 
an  antique  conception  the  Dioscuri  of  this  pres 
ent  Period,  the  twin  sons  of  Zeus  the  Highest, 
though  born  of  a  mortal  mother;  not  indeed  are 
they  divinely  twinned  from  birth  in  an  immortal 
love,  like  those  old  fabled  twins  of  the  God,  but 
they  live  mutually  repellent  and  oppugnant  in 
character  and  even  in  stature — not  sympathetic 
brothers  in  joint  heroic  toils  but  deeply  antipa 
thetic  in  strifeful  combats.  And  yet  these  mutu 
ally  battling  Dioscuri  of  the  Prairie,  begotten 
spiritually  of  the  same  supernal  parent,  had  far 
down  in  their  hearts  an  undying  common  love 
of  their  parental  land  and  of  its  chief  institution, 
the  Union.  That  love,  tested  by  fire,  will  at  last 
reveal  itself  as  deeper  and  stronger  than  their 
hostility  and  fuse  them  together  in  one  supreme 
purpose. 


268       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

It  may  be  here  added  that  in  the  organization 
of  the  present  biography  of  Lincoln,  we  shall  be 
hold  these  coming  eighteen  years  (his  Second 
Period)  falling  naturally  into  three  sexennial  por 
tions  or  Epochs,  each  of  which  has  its  own  mean 
ing  and  process,  as  well  as  its  function  in  his  total 
life.  To  each,  therefore,  a  chapter  will  be  sep 
arately  marked  off  and  assigned. 


CHAPTER  FIRST. 

jfrom  State  to  IRation. 

Lincoln  is,  therefore,  to  be  nationalized,  passing 
from  the  Capital  at  Springfield  to  the  Capital  at 
Washington,  rising  from  the  Single-State  to  the 
United-States.  It  is  an  experience  which  practic 
ally  renders  him  national;  he  as  Representative 
has  to  make  laws  for  the  whole  Nation.  He  has 
to  move  out  of  the  bounds  of  his  special  locality 
and  hold  in  view  the  entire  country.  Already  he 
has  been  legislator  for  one  State,  now  he  is  to  be 
legislator  for  all  the  States.  Thus  he  is  brought 
into  direct  contact  with  the  national  problem  of 
the  time  and  gets  acquainted  with  the  men  who 
are  working  at  it  from  various  points  of  view  and 
from  different  parts  of  the  land. 

Illinois  is  a  product  of  the  Union  as  State-maker, 
in  and  through  which  Union  Illinois  as  State  par 
ticipates  in  the  making  of  new  States.  Now  the 
pivotal  question  of  the  time  is  going  to  turn  upon 
this  national  act  of  State-making,  or  the  produc 
tion  of  new  States  out  of  acquired  territories.  Ill 
inois  by  herself  cannot  produce  a  new  State,  only 
the  Union  can,  to  whose  genetic  power  she,  how 
ever,  contributes  through  her  Congressional  repre 
sentatives.  Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  member  of  the 
Lower  House  from  Illinois  will  have  considerable 

(269) 


270        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—PART  SECOND. 

experience  with  this  matter  of  the  creation  of  new 
States  out  of  the  territorial  domain  of  the  Union. 
In  fact  it  is  to  be  seen  that  he  now  strikes  the  fun 
damental  and  enduring  key  note  of  his  political 
career:  the  Union  as  State-producing  must  pro 
duce  only  Free-States. 

Lincoln,  however,  does  not  at  once  sweep  for 
ward  to  his  prize.  He  has  to  make  three  trials 
for  his  party's  nomination,  but  on  the  third  trial 
he  wins  and  is  elected.  He  serves  only  one  term 
when  he  retires,  and  his  Congressional  period 
comes  to  an  end  never  to  be  resumed.  He  will 
indeed  return  to  Washington  a  dozen  years  after 
ward,  but  as  President.  In  1849  when  he  quits 
Congress  and  goes  back  home  to  his  State  and  its 
Capital,  he  has  passed  through  a  distinct  epoch  of 
his  life,  during  which  his  chief  ambition  has  been 
to  make  himself  national.  But  he  is  remanded 
to  his  starting-point  and  seemingly  has  to  begin 
over  again. 

Some  six  or  seven  years  (1842-1849)  we  put  into 
this  epoch,  which  rounds  out  within  itself  one 
phase  of  Lincoln's  experience.  It  is  a  curious  fact 
that  during  these  same  years  Douglas  is  traveling  the 
same  road  to  the  Capital,  he  also  is  nationalizing 
himself  by  moving  from  the  State  to  the  Nation. 
But  Douglas  far  outruns  Lincoln  in  the  race,  hav 
ing  become  Representative  and  finally  Senator  in 
just  the  foregoing  stretch  of  time.  When  Lincoln 
enters  the  Lower  House,  Douglas  enters  the  Upper. 


HOPE  DEFERRED.  271 

Indeed  Lincoln  seems  to  be  turned  back,  while 
Douglas  seems  to  be  pushing  onward.  Both  are 
moving,  each  in  his  own  orbit,  toward  a  common 
goal,  the  highest  gift  of  the  American  People; 
which  will  gain  it? 

At  present  Lincoln  is  to  be  seen  becoming  na 
tional;  thus  he  gets  aware  of  the  Nation  as  dual 
and  falls  into  the  dualism  himself.  He  will  try  to 
take  up  both  sides,  but  really  drops  into  their 
contradiction.  In  this  way  the  national  rift  of 
the  time  finds  its  reflection  in  his  career  and  also 
in  his  soul. 

So  Lincoln,  having  advanced  from  State  to  Na 
tion,  is,  at  the  end  of  his  Congressional  term, 
whirled  back  from  Nation  to  State.  Thus  we  ob 
serve  a  little  cycle  of  life  rounded  out  into  a  kind 
of  completeness.  But  he  returns  to  his  starting- 
point  a  very  different  man;  now  he  has  the  na 
tional  dualism  in  his  soul  which  becomes  the  silent 
and  quite  unseen  arena  of  the  two  conflicting 
sides  till  the  time  brings  his  liberation.  But  first 
we  must  follow  his  slow  ascent  to  the  national 
fountain-head — the  tedious  struggle  of  a  full  sex- 
ennium. 

I. 

Hope  Deferred. 

Lincoln,  having  served  four  terms  in  the  Illinois 
Legislature,  deemed  that  he  had  done  his  duty  to 
his  State.  He  refused  re-election,  and  set  about 


272       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

taking  the  next  important  step  in  the  line  of  pro 
motion.  He  did  not  wish  to  be  Governor,  though 
his  name  was  mentioned  for  the  position.  He 
must  advance  out  of  Illinois  to  the  national 
center.  His  ambition  was  to  be  Congressman,  and 
in  1842  he  opened  his  canvas.  The  Springfield 
district  was  composed  of  a  number  of  counties, 
and  there  was  no  lack  of  able  candidates.  Lin 
coln  was  not  successful,  indeed  he  had  to  take  a 
double  dose  of  defeat.  Not  only  did  he  not  get 
the  nomination  of  his  own  party,  but  he  was 
beaten  in  his  own  County  of  Sangamon  by  Edwin 
D.  Baker,  who  fell  at  Ball's  Bluff  in  the  Civil 
War.  Still  Baker  did  not  get  the  nomination,  but 
the  prize  came  to  John  J.  Hardin,  who  perished  at 
the  battle  of  Buena  Vista  in  the  Mexican  War. 
Lincoln,  however,  was  one  of  the  delegates  of  San 
gamon  to  the  nominating  convention,  with  in 
structions  to  support  Baker,  so  that  he  compared 
himself  to  "a  fellow  who  is  made  groomsman  to  a 
man  that  has  cut  him  out,  and  is  marrying  his 
own  dear  gal." 

The  most  interesting  point  in  connection  with 
this  candidacy  is  Lincoln's  view  of  the  social  and 
religious  influences  which  swamped  him  in  Sanga 
mon.  He  was  defamed  as  an  aristocrat,  an  in 
fidel,  and  a  duelist.  In  a  letter  which  gives  the 
reasons  why  "the  people  of  Sangamon  have  cast 
me  off,"  he  declares:  "It  would  astonish  if 
not  amuse  the  older  citizens  to  learn  that  I 


HOPE  DEFERRED.  273 

(a  strange,  friendless,  uneducated  boy  working  on 
a  flat-boat  at  ten  dollars  a  month)  have  been  put 
down  here  as  the  candidate  of  pride,  wealth,  and 
aristocratic  family  distinction."  Already  we  have 
noted  that  Lincoln  on  going  to  Springfield  asso 
ciated  chiefly  with  the  Kentucky  patriciate;  here 
is  a  political  echo  of  it,  quite  to  his  surprise. 
Still  his  old  friends  of  New  Salem  and  the  Clary 
Grove  boys  clung  to  him,  even  if  he  *  had  married 
into  the  aristocracy .  This,  by  the  way,  was  the 
year  of  his  marriage .  Lincoln  speculates  curiously 
upon  "the  strangest  combination  of  church  influ 
ence  against  me.  Baker  is  a  Campbellite  and 
therefore,  as  I  suppose  with  few  exceptions,  got 
all  that  church."  So  Lincoln  seeks  to  fathom 
why  "the  people  of  Sangamon  have  cast  me  off," 
evidently  a  stunning  blow  to  him,  or  several  of 
them,  which  seem  to  have  beaten  down  upon  him 
from  different  unsuspected  directions.  Religion 
appears  to  have  largely  entered  the  contest,  since 
"it  was  everywhere  contended  that  no  Christian 
ought  to  go  for  me,  because  I  belonged  to  no 
church,  was  suspected  of  being  a  deist,  and  had 
talked  about  fighting  a  duel."  That  was  indeed 
the  bitter  pill  in  the  whole  transaction:  the  de 
fection  of  his  own  home  to  his  interest. 

The  result  is,  that  Lincoln  has  to  wait  a  while 
before  he  can  make  that  much-desired  journey  to 
the  centre  of  the  Nation.  And  to  tell  the  truth 
he  can  afford  the  delay,  since  the  time  has  no  very 

18 


274       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

important  issue,    certainly    not   Lincoln's   great 
issue. 

In  1842,  the  question  of  slavery  extension 
was  quiescent,  and  Tyler's  administration  had  no 
hold  upon  any  party  or  upon  the  people.  But  in 
1844  the  proposed  annexation  of  Texas  roused  a 
new  political  interest,  which  culminated  in  the  de 
feat  of  Henry  Clay  for  President,  of  whom  Lincoln 
had  become  an  ardent  supporter  and  admirer. 

Lincoln  was  a  lukewarm  opponent  of  annexa 
tion;  for  that  matter,  Clay  was  too,  and  in  his  fa 
mous  letters  during  the  campaign  of  1844,  shifted 
from  side  to  side.  Lincoln  declared:  "I  perhaps 
ought  to  say  that  individually  I  never  was  much 
interested  in  the  Texas  question.  I  never  could 
see  much  good  to  come  of  annexation,  inasmuch 
as  they  were  already  a  free  republican  people  on 
our  own  model.  On  the  other  hand,  I  never  could 
very  clearly  see  how  the  annexation  would  aug 
ment  the  evil  of  slavery.  It  always  seemed  to 
me  that  slaves  would  be  taken  there  in  about 
equal  numbers  with  or  without  annexation."  Lin 
coln  holds  that  the  addition  of  Texas,  which,  as  an 
independent  Republic,  was  already  a  Slave-State, 
would  not  increase  the  influence  of  slavery.  On 
this  point  he  differed  widely  from  the  strong  anti- 
slavery  men  of  the  North,  who  maintained  with 
truth  that  the  annexation  of  Texas  added  much  to 
the  political  power  of  slavery  in  the  Union.  Al 
ready  we  see  the  race  between  North  and  South 


HOPE  DEFERRED.  275 

for  the  winning  of  new  States,  which  meant  the 
supremacy  of  one  section  over  the  other,  or  at 
least  their  equilibrium. 

The  popular  sentiment  as  a  whole,  even  in  the 
North,  favored  the  acquisition  of  Texas.  If  the 
American  Union  is  to  be  productive  of  States  as  its 
supreme  function,  then  it  must  have  territory  on 
which  it  can  realize  its  own  highest  nature.  The 
claim  of  Mexico  to  Texas  was  that  of  might 
greater  than  Spain,  the  previous  claim  of  Spain 
was  that  of  might  greater  than  the  Indians,  who 
in  turn  were  invaders,  having  driven  out  antece 
dent  inhabitants.  Bands  of  Americans  had  gone 
into  Texas  and  wrenched  the  country  from  Mexico, 
and,  moreover,  had  founded  a  State  after  the 
American  pattern,  which  had  asserted  for  years  its 
right  of  existence.  Annexation  touched  profoundly 
a  responsive  chord  in  the  American  Folk-Soul, 
which  felt  in  it  the  State-creating  act.  Both  Lin 
coln  and  Clay  responded  to  the  same  feeling,  in 
spite  of  their  opposition. 

To  be  sure  there  was  a  note  of  discord  in  this 
matter,  inasmuch  as  the  new  State  was  to  be  a 
Slave-State.  A  party  had  already  risen  in  the 
North  which  was  determined  that  the  Union 
should  produce  no  more  Slave  States.  At  this 
point  Lincoln's  opposition  comes  in,  and  he  gets 
his  persistent  theme :  slavery  must  be  kept  out  of 
the  territories.  The  Union  must  indeed  be  State- 
producing,  but  must  produce  Free-States  only. 


276       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND.  ; 

The  Nation  might  be  united  upon  the  acquisition 
of  territory,  but  it  would  certainly  be  deeply 
divided  if  such  territory  were  handed  over  to 
slavery. 

II. 

The  Mexican    War. 

During  the  last  days  of  December,  1846,  Con 
gress  admitted  Texas  as  a  Slave-State.  Previously 
it  had  been  an  independent  government  with  its 
own  law  and  constitution,  and  the  question  has 
been  often  propounded,  Did  the  United  States 
annex  Texas,  or  Texas  the  United  States?  Prac 
tically,  however,  Texas  was  a  product  of  the 
American  Union;  Americans  had  settled  it  as  a 
territory,  wrenched  it  from  Mexico,  and  organized 
it  as  a  State  after  the  American  pattern.  Its 
anomaly  was  that  the  hardy  pioneers  had  seized 
upon  a  land  not  belonging  to  the  Federal  Union, 
and  had  shown  their  State-making  capacity  in  an 
entirely  independent  fashion,  without  the  super 
vision  of  the  central  government.  Thus  the  story 
of  Texas  has  a  peculiar  character  different  from 
that  of  any  other  State;  in  this  regard  it  remains 
a  Lone  Star  in  the  Union. 

As  was  expected,  the  act  of  the  United  States 
produced  war  with  Mexico.  General  Zachary 
Taylor  was  ordered  to  the  Rio  Grande  where  he 
took  up  a  position  opposite  to  Matamoras.  On 
May  8th,  1846,  was  fought  the  battle  of  Palo 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  277 

Alto,  and  the  next  day  that  of  Resaca  de  la 
Palma,  both  of  them  American  victories  which 
thrilled  the  country  and  overbore  opposition  to 
the  War,  except  in  New  England.  Taylor's  victo 
rious  career  continued,  culminating  in  the  battle 
of  Buena  Vista  (February  23d,  1847),  in  which  he 
defeated  a  Mexican  force  under  Santa  Anna  four 
or  five  times  larger  than  his  own.  He  became 
at  once  a  popular  hero,  and  was  soon  put  in 
line  for  the  Presidency  by  the  Whig  party,  which 
on  the  whole  had  opposed  the  war,  but  soon  got 
ready  to  reap  its  political  fruits,  even  through  its 
own  self-negation. 

Quite  as  successful  was  the  campaign  of  General 
Scott  terminating  in  the  capture  of  the  City  of 
Mexico  (September  14th,  1847),  after  which  he 
was  soon  displaced  by  the  Democratic  administra 
tion,  doubtless  out  of  jealousy  of  the  Whig  com 
mander.  The  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  was 
signed  February  2nd,  1848,  by  which  Mexico  ac 
cepted  the  Rio  Grande  as  boundary,  and  ceded 
Upper  California,  which  embraced  a  large  territory 
equivalent  to  more  than  ten  States  of  the  size  of 
Ohio.  This  new  territory  was  again  to  be  the 
apple  of  discord  between  the  Slave-States  and  the 
Free-States.  Already  in  1846  the  possibility  of 
acquisition  of  territory  from  Mexico  had  called 
forth  the  Wilmot  proviso,  "that  neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude  shall  ever  exist  therein. ' ' 
This  little  sentence  becomes  for  many  years  the 


278       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

pivot  of  political  discussion  between  the  North 
and  South.  It  is  a  declaration  that  the  Federal 
Union  shall  be  henceforth  productive  of  Free- 
States  only;  Wilmot  of  Pennsylvania  introduced 
it,  but  its  author  is  said  to  have  been  Brinkerhoff 
of  Ohio. 

Now  in  this  same  year  of  1846  Lincoln  was 
first  elected  to  Congress.  He  had  been  a  Clay 
elector  for  Illinois  in  1844,  and  became  a  well- 
known  campaign  orator  throughout  the  State.  He 
paid  a  visit  to  his  former  home  in  Indiana  near 
Gentry ville  in  1844,  where  he  made  a  speech  to  an 
audience  composed  largely  of  his  old  neighbors, 
whom  he  had  quit  some  fourteen  years  before. 
The  occasion  also  inspired  a  batch  of  verses  which 
have  been  preserved.  The  memories  of  his  youth 
brought  back  the  old  habit  of  rhyming,  which  was 
one  of  his  boyish  knacks.  It  seems  that  he  wrote 
four  "cantos"  of  which  he  sent  a  couple  to  a  po 
etical  friend  nearly  two  years  after  they  were 
written.  The  popular  ballad  was  evidently  his 
model,  and  he  has  a  number  of  pretty  poetic  fan 
cies,  in  spite  of  some  mistakes  in  grammar  and 
some  limping  measures — certainly  not  worse  than 
his  popular  prototype.  The  tone  of  the  two 
printed  ballads  is  sad,  and  in  one  of  the  accompa 
nying  letters  is  an  allusion  to  his  favorite  poem, 
usually  called  "Immortality,"  of  which  he  says : 
"I  am  not  the  author.  I  would  give  all  I  am 
worth  and  go  in  debt,  to  be  able  to  write  so  fine  a 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  279 

piece  as  I  think  that  is.  Neither  do  I  know  who 
is  the  author."  Certainly  Lincoln  must  have  had 
some  poetic  ambition,  if  he  would  have  given  so 
much  to  be  the  author  of  this  lyric.  He  goes  on : 
"I  met  it  in  a  straggling  form  in  a  newspaper  last 
summer  (1845)  and  I  remember  to  have  seen  it 
once  before  about  fifteen  years  ago,"  which  would 
throw  his  first  acquaintance  with  it  back  to  the 
year  1831,  when  he  first  arrived  at  New  Salem. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  poem  became  deeply 
interwoven  in  Lincoln's  soul  with  the  e vanishment 
of  Ann  Rut  ledge,  and  was  for  him  the  utterance  of 
an  eternal  love,  which  he  seemed  to  recall  and 
breathe  in  through  its  pensive  strain. 

Worthy  of  notice  is  it,  therefore,  that  we  now 
catch  the  most  distinct  glimpse  of  Lincoln  as  seek 
ing  to  master  creatively  another  literary  form  of 
the  People.  For  the  ballad  at  its  purest  fount 
wells  out  of  the  popular  heart  anonymously,  be 
ing  an  immediate,  spontaneous  utterance  of  the 
Folk-Soul  itself,  like  the  true  legend,  yea,  like  lan 
guage  also.  The  name  of  no  individual  as  author 
is  stamped  upon  the  mythology  of  a  people,  though 
a  great  poet  like  Homer  transforms,  and  indeed 
organizes  it,  and  many  later  singers  and  artists 
draw  for  their  use  from  this  primordial  well-head 
of  the  Folk's  expression.  Significant  is  it,  there 
fore,  to  see  Lincoln  actually  balladizing,  and  turn 
ing  up  to  the  sunlight  a  new  vein  harmonious  with 
his  fabling.  For  both  ballad  and  fable  are  twin 


280       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

utterances  of  the  Folk-Soul  which  it  is  Lincoln's 
supreme  literary  function  to  voice,  laden,  however, 
with  the  new  and  far  mightier  content  of  the 
Nation  and  the  Age. 

Furthermore,  it  may  be  here  added  that  Lincoln 
as  fabulist,  deals  not  in  the  traditional  fancies  of 
old  Greek  legend.  Quite  nothing  do  we  hear 
from  his  mouth  about  the  classic  nymphs  of  the 
brooks,  of  the  trees,  and  of  the  hills;  nor  could  he 
make  the  Olympian  Gods  grind  in  his  literary 
Pantheon ;  the  whole  Greek  mythical  world  was 
alien  to  him,  though  he  must  have  been  running 
his  nose  perpetually  against  it  in  his  reading  of 
poetry  and  oratory.  What  is  more  surprising,  we 
catch  next  to  nothing  of  the  transmitted  stream  of 
Teutonic  folk-lore  in  Lincoln's  fabling,  though  in 
this  stream  he  and  his  ancestral  line  must  have 
been  dipped  for  untold  generations.  One  might 
think  that  the  neighboring  forest  with  which  Lin 
coln  lived  in  sympathetic  communion  during  his 
entire  youth,  would  have  started  in  him,  or  at 
least  re-vivified  the  old  Germanic  folk-tale,  such 
as  we  see  in  Grimm,  with  its  fairies,  elves,  witches, 
and  magic  spells.  Little  or  nothing  of  the  sort  do 
we  find  in  Lincoln's  stories;  the  supernatural 
Powers  of  the  European  Mythus  he  seems  to  turn 
from,  in  spite  of  a  native  tendency  to  foreboding 
and  even  to  superstition,  as  he  confesses.  His 
fabling  rests  upon  the  new  consciousness  of  the 
American  backwoodsman,  who  recognizes  no  im- 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  281 

passable  line  between  himself  and  the  forest,  for 
he  cuts  it  down  and  converts  it  into  his  own  home. 
Moreover,  he,  as  freeman,  determines  the  institu 
tional  world  which  determines  him,  makes  the  law 
which  he  obeys,  and  thus  is  truly  self-determined. 
Hence  he  introduces  no  mighty  monarch  or  beau 
tiful  princess  coming  from  fairyland  or  from  a  far- 
off  outside  realm,  to  give  him  golden  gifts  which 
are  properly  his  own,  or  to  bring  to  him  that  jus 
tice  which  he  is  to  bring  to  himself,  of  course 
through  his  own  self-created  institutions.  So  it 
befalls  that  Lincoln  having  to  appeal  to  the  Folk- 
Soul  in  its  own  speech,  suggests  by  the  way  a  new 
folk-lore,  though  this  of  course  is  not  elaborated, 
and  he  is  largely  unconscious  of  his  own  pro 
cedure.  His  fabling,  if  true  to  his  environing  re 
ality,  cannot  be  of  nature  determining  man 
through  its  play  of  mythical  forms,  such  as  we 
behold  in  European  story,  but  of  man  determin 
ing  nature  by  his  axe  and  plow,  and  in  general  by 
his  mind,  for  that  is  the  fact  before  him,  and  even 
this  fact  rests  upon  a  still  deeper  foundation, 
namely,  that  of  a  free  institutional  world. 

Accordingly  Lincoln's  story-telling,  especially  in 
the  form  which  it  takes,  reaches  down  to  a  very 
deep  layer  of  American  consciousness  and  of  his 
own.  Folk-lore,  transmitted  by  the  poet,  sage, 
fabulist  from  generation  to  generation,  is  the  first 
teacher  of  the  People.  Moreover,  it  is  in  a  condi 
tion  of  continual  transformation,  for  it  must  be 


282       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

wrought  over  again  and  again  to  image  the  ever- 
changing,  social  evolution  of  the  Folk-Soul.  Pro 
foundly  significant  of  the  new  institutional  order 
in  America  is  the  fact  that  Lincoln,  as  fabulist 
to  his  People,  eschewed  the  shapes  of  external  au 
thority,  which  are  the  dominating  powers  of  the 
European  Mythus,  ancient  and  modern,  Northern 
and  Southern. 

All  this  seems  far  enough  away  from  the  Mexi 
can  War  with  which  we  started.  But  we  should 
never  forget  the  bubbling  fountain  of  fable 
which  Lincoln  carried  around  in  his  heart,  quite 
ready  to  send  forth  a  little  jet  of  itself  if  rightly 
touched,  and  which  gushed  up  spontaneously  from 
the  deepest  depths  of  his  being. 

III. 
Lincoln  as  Congressman. 

The  Democratic  opponent  of  Lincoln  in  his  race 
for  Congress  was  a  famous  Methodist  preacher, 
Peter  Cartwright,  who,  born  in  Tennessee,  had 
moved  as  a  young  man  from  Kentucky  to  Illinois, 
in  order  to  live  in  a  Free-State.  Thus  he  be 
longed,  like  Lincoln,  to  that  great  migration  from 
the  South  into  the  North- West,  for  the  purpose  of 
getting  away  from  slavery.  A  certain  rude,  mag 
netic  power  lay  in  the  man,  which  produced  as 
tonishing  effects  at  the  revivals  and  camp-meet 
ings  of  the  backwoodsmen.  Cartwright  seems  to 


LINCOLN  AS  CONGRESSMAN.  283 

have  made  religion  the  chief  issue  with  Lincoln, 
who  was  again  held  up  as  an  infidel,  as  a  duelist, 
and  as  an  aristocrat.  His  superior  fitness  for  the 
position,  however,  was  so  apparent  that  he  was 
elected  by  a  large  majority. 

Lincoln  has  now  climbed  to  a  very  important 
rung  in  the  ladder  of  his  ambition;  he  is  at  last  to 
pass  from  the  State  to  the  Nation,  from  Spring 
field  to  Washington.  Still  he  finds  a  deep  discord 
in  his  situation;  he  in  common  with  the  Whigs 
opposed  the  Mexican  war,  yet  he  felt  compelled  to 
urge  its  vigorous  prosecution  in  a  public  meeting 
at  Springfield.  His  Whig  friends  had  rushed  pell- 
mell  into  the  struggle  which  to  him  was  of  doubt 
ful  right.  In  the  Illinois  delegation  to  Congress 
he  was  the  only  Whig.  He  began  to  feel  out  of 
joint  with  the  time,  and  especially  with  the  people 
of  his  State.  Of  this  lack  of  harmony  between 
himself  and  the  Folk-Soul  we  catch  a  slight  echo 
in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Speed :  "Being  elected  to 
Congress,  though  I  am  grateful  to  our  friends  for 
having  done  it,  has  not  pleased  me  as  much  as  1 
expected."  He  gets  in  advance  a  whiff  of  that 
dissonance  which  he  is  certain  to  meet  at  the  Cap 
ital  of  the  Nation. 

A  year  had  still  to  pass  between  his  election 
and  the  time  when  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
start  for  the  national  Capital.  During  that  year 
took  place  the  most  brilliant  victories  of  the  Mex 
ican  War — the  battle  of  Buena  Vista  and  General 


284       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Scott's  triumphant  march  from  Vera  Cruz  to  the 
city  of  Mexico.  Lincoln  looking  at  that  dazzling 
military  pageant  far  off  in  a  Southern  land,  and 
observing  the  intoxication  of  his  own  people, 
might  well  have  his  presentiments  in  regard  to  his 
political  future.  He,  in  his  heart  an  opponent  of 
the  war,  felt  with  every  victory  the  inner  and 
deepening  clash  between  himself  and  the  Folk- 
Soul,  so  that  he  was  really  no  longer  its  represen 
tative  even  in  his  own  district.  And  as  the  situa 
tion  already  was,  he  stood  forth  the  solitary  Whig 
in  Congress  from  Illinois.  No  wonder  that  the 
election  "has  not  pleased  me  as  much  as  I  ex 
pected."  Hitherto  the  popular  heart  and  his 
heart  have  had  one  pulsation  together,  but  now 
they  begin  to  beat  differently,  yea,  antagonistically. 
Still  that  separation  is  just  what  now  must  take 
place,  for  through  it  Lincoln  gets  to  be  himself 
within  himself,  wins  his  true  independent  individ 
uality.  After  this  estrangement  he  will  return  to 
the  Folk-Soul,  not  to  be  absorbed  into  it  again  as 
one  of  its  protoplasmic  atoms,  but  capable  of  being 
its  leader. 

Lincoln  set  out  for  Washington  in  November, 
1847.  Thirteen  years  and  some  months  later  he 
will  again  take  his  departure  from  Springfield .  for 
the  Capital  of  the  Nation  under  very  different  cir 
cumstances.  That  rift  which  is  already  beginning 
and  which  he  feels,  is  to  widen  into  open  disunion 
and  war.  In  the  boarding  club,  "Mrs.  Spriggs's 


LINCOLN  AS  CONGRESSMAN.  285 

mess/'  where  Lincoln  lived  while  at  Washington, 
was  Joshua  Giddings  of  Ohio,  the  rankest  aboli 
tionist  in  Congress,  and  also  some  southern  mem 
bers.  Fiery  disputation  over  the  slavery  question 
sprang  up  which,  it  is  said,  Lincoln  would  calm 
and  turn  into  a  laugh  by  one  of  his  funny  stories. 
Still  at  the  dinner-table  he  had  to  witness  the 
bitter  controversy  of  the  time,  in  which  he  could 
not  help  participating.  The  separation  in  his  own 
party  also  he  must  have  felt,  since  Robert  Toombs 
and  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  both  of  them  ardent 
pro-slavery  members  from  Georgia,  were  Whig 
leaders,  very  hostile  to  the  Wilmot  proviso,  for 
which  Lincoln  repeatedly  gave  his  vote.  What 
could  better  call  up  in  his  soul  the  great  national 
dualism  of  which  he  was  to  get  the  full  experience 
at  the  Capital? 

At  this  session  of  the  House  the  Whigs  had  a 
slight  majority,  enough  to  elect  Robert  C.  Win- 
throp  as  speaker,  who  was  able  to  unite  both 
wings,  Southern  and  Northern.  On  the  whole  the 
Whig  party  was  opposed  to  the  Mexican  War,  but 
its  majority  had  to  vote  supplies  for  the  army, 
always  with  a  kind  of  protest.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  Lincoln  braced  up  to  greater  opposition  at 
Washington  than  at  Springfield.  In  fact  it  is  de 
clared  that  he  had  resolved  in  Illinois  to  say  as 
little  as  possible  about  the  war  during  his  Con 
gressional  career.  He  knew  that  the  people  of  his 
State  strongly  favored  it — a  fact  ever  present  to 


286       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

him  as  the  solitary  Whig  Representative  of  Illinois. 
But  when  he  found  that  his  party  had  the  ma 
jority  in  the  House,  he  changed,  he  began  to  take 
the  color  of  his  environment.  He  voted  for  the 
resolution  of  Ashmun  of  Massachusetts  that  the 
war  had  been  unnecessarily  and  unconstitutionally 
begun  by  the  President.  This  was  a  slap  in  the 
face  of  his  constituency,  and  brought  a  protest 
even  from  his  partner  and  friend,  Herndon,  who 
declared  to  him  frankly  that  he  was  committing 
political  suicide  and  destroying  his  own  party. 
But  Lincoln  did  not  stop  with  voting  for  another 
member's  resolutions ;  he  drew  up  and  offered  a 
set  of  his  own  December  22,  1847.  These  have 
been  nicknamed  the  "Spot  Resolutions,"  since 
they  call  upon  the  President,  Democratic  Polk,  to 
describe  "the  particular  spot  on  which  the  blood 
of  our  citizens  was  shed,"  repeating  the  word 
"spot"  three  times  with  a  special  emphasis.  The 
implication  was  that  the  President  and  not  Mexico 
was  the  aggressor,  and  that  the  war  was  unjust. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  in  these  transactions  Lin 
coln  has  broken  with  the  Folk-Soul  of  his  State, 
and  in  fact  of  the  North-West.  The  acquisition 
of  territory  for  the  creation  of  new  States  was  felt 
to  be  a  necessity  by  the  People.  The  claim  of 
Mexico  and  of  Spain  before  her  was  weak,  and 
could  not  stand  against  the  right  of  the  settlers 
who  had  conquered  the  territory.  Lincoln  has  set 
himself  indirectly  against  the  State-making  in- 


LINCOLN  AS  CONGRESSMAN.  287 

stinct  of  the  American  Folk-Soul,  and  is  certain 
to  get  the  backstroke  of  his  act.  When  he  left 
Springfield,  there  had  been  already  talk  of  his  re- 
nomination,  but  after  his  first  session  in  Congress 
no  such  outlook  was  mentioned. 

Secretly  underneath  Lincoln's  opposition  lay  the 
fact  that  the  new  territorial  acquisitions  were  to 
be  made  into  Slave-States.  At  present,  however, 
his  hostility  runs  counter  to  any  possession  of  the 
lands  bounded  by  the  Rio  Grande.  Such  a  limi 
tation  was  felt  to  be  a  suppression  of  the  national 
spirit,  which  the  People  were  certain  to  resent. 
Clearly  Lincoln's  Congressional  action  in  the  Con 
gress  of  1847-8  has  whelmed  him  into  a  deep  con 
flict  with  his  own  constituency.  The  discord, 
however,  belongs  to  the  time,  to  the  party,  to  the 
Nation,  and  will  never  cease  till  slavery  itself  be 
abolished. 

In  his  new  position  Lincoln  did  not  let  his  su 
preme  gift  of  story-telling  rust  from  disuse.  Says 
a  listener:  "By  New  Year's  (1848)  he  was  recog 
nized  as  the  champion  story-teller  of  the  Capitol." 
He  would  tilt  back  his  chair,  stretch  out  his  long 
legs  (it  is  not  reported  that  he  "cocked  them  up" 
in  Washington  as  he  did  in  New  Salem),  and  open 
with  his  ever-recurring  prelude,  "That  reminds 
me"  of  something  that  occurred  down  in  Egypt 
(Southern  Illinois)  or  during  the  Black  Hawk  War. 
This  picture  of  him  at  the  table  has  also  been 
handed  down:  "When  about  to  tell  an  anecdote 


288        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—PART  SECOND. 

during  a  meal,  he  would  lay  down  his  knife  and 
fork,  place  his  elbows  on  the  table,  rest  his  face 
between  his  hands"  and  strike  up  his  unfailing 
overture,  "That  reminds  me."  It  is  also  said  that 
"he  never  told  a  story  twice,"  but  seemed  to  have 
an  inexhaustible  stock  laid  up  in  due  order  and 
ready  to  go  off  at  the  least  touch.  The  bowling 
alley  was  also  a  favorite  place  of  his,  and  would 
attract  a  crowd  of  men  to  see  him  and  hear  him; 
he  was  a  very  awkward  bowler,  and  could  easily 
push  this  awkwardness  to  the  point  of  bodily  gro- 
tesquery,  accompanied  with  a  fitting  joke  or  story, 
"some  of  which  were  very  broad." 

But  underneath  all  this  extravagant  humor, 
which  at  times  reached  the  point  of  buffoonry,  the 
conflict  of  the  age  was  entering  Lincoln's  soul  and 
cleaving  it  into  two  contradictory  parts,  which 
imaged  the  nation,  and  which  he  had  to  harmon 
ize  within,  ere  he  could  restore  them  to  unity 
without. 

IV. 

The  Campaign  of  1848. 

During  Lincoln's  first  Congressional  term  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  President-making.  Candidates 
were  to  be  nominated,  and  the  question  buzzed  in 
Washington,  particularly  about  the  halls  of  the 
Capitol,  Who  is  the  coming  man?  With  the 
Whigs,  their  great  leaders  and  orators,  Clay  and 
Webster,  were  clearly  impossibilities.  The  Mexi- 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1848.  289 

can  War  had  thrown  them  out  of  harmony  with 
the  People  as  a  whole.  Moreover,  the  Whig  party 
had  opposed  the  war,  but  could  ride  into  office 
only  on  the  wave  of  the  war's  popularity.  Under 
such  circumstances  it  soon  began  to  be  perceived 
that  General  Zachary  Taylor  was  the  most  avail 
able  candidate  in  the  field.  He  was  the  popular 
hero  of  the  triumph  over  Mexico,  and  one  of  the 
ardent  advocates  for  his  nomination  instead  of 
Clay,  who  had  sulked  during  the  war,  was  our 
Abraham  Lincoln,  who  had  denounced  it  as  unjust 
and  unconstitutional. 

June  7th,  1848,  the  Whig  Convention  assembled 
at  Philadelphia,  and  on  the  fourth  ballot  the  hero  of 
Buena  Vista  was  nominated.  There  was  no  plat 
form,  no  declaration  of  principles;  an  attempt  to 
introduce  the  Wilmot  Proviso  in  regard  to  the 
new  territories  was  not  allowed  to  come  to  a  vote. 
The  burning  question  of  the  time  was  smothered 
without  giving  forth  a  single  spark.  Never  did  a 
political  party  so  completely  stultify  itself.  The 
Whiggery  of  Taylor  was  very  dubious,  but  that 
made  no  difference;  Whiggery  itself  was  dubious, 
particularly  dubious  of  itself.  He  was  not  bound 
by  any  platform.  Anyhow,  the  party  was  going 
to  vote  for  the  hero  of  a  war  whose  injustice  and 
unconstitutionality  it  had  often,  and  even  passion 
ately,  affirmed.  The  victory  of  such  a  party 
means  its  death;  it  votes  for  its  own  negation. 

The  interest  for  us  at  present  is  that  Lincoln, 

19 


290        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

through  his  ardent  support  of  the  Whig  party  in 
its  nomination  of  Taylor,  gets  embroiled  in  all  its 
contradictions,  and  begins  to  explain  them  away 
for  himself  and  for  others.  He  makes  a  speech  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  (July  27th,  1848,  see 
Works,  I.,  p.  135),  which  gives  a  very  significant 
picture  of  the  Lincoln  of  that  pivotal  moment. 
He  had  voted  more  than  forty  times  for  the  Wil- 
mot  Proviso;  it  was  really  the  cardinal  doctrine  of 
his  political  faith,  and  bore  in  itself  the  basic  prin 
ciple  of  his  whole  future  career.  Why  should  it, 
above  all  things,  be  suppressed  by  his  party?  And 
a  candidate  chosen  whose  opinion  about  it  is  at 
least  unknown?  But  let  us  hear  Lincoln  himself: 
"I  admit  I  do  not  certainly  know  what  he  (Taylor) 
would  do  on  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  I  am  a  North 
ern  man,  or  rather  a  Western  Free-State  man, 
with  a  constituency  I  believe  to  be,  and  with  per 
sonal  feelings  I  know  to  be,  against  the  extension 
of  slavery.  As  such,  and  with  what  information  I 
have,  I  hope  and  believe  that  General  Taylor,  if 
elected,  would  not  veto  the  Proviso.  But  I  do 
not  know  it.  But  if  I  knew  he  would,  I  still 
would  vote  for  him,"  not  only  against  Cass  but 
against  Van  Buren,  the  nominee  of  the  Free- 
Soilers,  whose  platform  strongly  affirms  the  princi 
ple  of  the  Proviso.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Lincoln 
felt  the  inner  dissonance  of  his  position.  Through 
the  labored  explanations  of  his  speech  runs  an  un 
dercurrent  of  his  soul's  protest,  which  he  seeks  to 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1848.  291 

divert  by  making  fun  of  Cass.  Lincoln  has  fol 
lowed  his  party  into  the  deepest  discord  with  him 
self,  and  with  his  true  destiny.  He  has  been 
brought  face  to  face  with  his  party's  political  sui 
cide,  and  his  own,  too,  of  which  act  he  seems  not 
fully  conscious.  But  it  will  lay  him  on  the  shelf 
for  many  a  long  year,  till  he  recovers  and  wakes 
up  a  new  man. 

In  the  same  speech  Lincoln  undertakes  to  allay 
another  very  real  discord:  "As  General  Taylor  is 
the  hero  of  the  Mexican  war,"  how  can  he  be 
consistently  supported  by  "the  Whigs  who  have 
always  opposed  the  war?"  It  is  a  troublesome 
matter  without  question,  but  Lincoln  grapples 
with  it,  drawing  the  "distinction  between  the  cause 
of  the  President,  who  started  the  war,  and  the 
cause  of  the  country  after  it  was  begun."  But 
now  that  it  is  over,  the  Whigs  do  not  think  of 
restitution,  but  rush  headlong  to  pluck  the  chief 
fruit  of  what  they  branded  as  injustice  and  a  vio 
lation  of  the  Constitution.  Truly  Lincoln  has 
been  whelmed  by  his  party  into  a  state  of  inner 
scission  and  self-contradiction,  of  which  he  is  as 
yet  only  partially  aware,  but  upon  which  he  will 
be  given  time  to  ruminate  a  good  deal. 

At  Washington  Lincoln  associated  with  Southern 
Whigs,  some  of  them  men  of  great  ability,  such 
as  Toombs  and  Stephens  of  Georgia.  Their  bent 
was  toward  slavery  extension,  in  bitter  hostility 
to  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  Lincoln  formed  a  politi- 


292       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

cal  club  with  them  and  co-operated  in  hushing 
the  anti-slavery  protest  in  the  party,  really  voting 
down  his  own  votes,  forty  and  more,  for  the  Pro 
viso.  We  doubt  if  this  gave  him  much  peace  of 
mind.  Rather  did  it  make  him  twinge  the  more 
restlessly  at  his  self-contradictory  conduct. 

After  the  close  of  the  session  of  Congress,  Lin 
coln  goes  campaigning  Northward,  where  he  gets 
into  another  atmosphere,  and  in  consequence  ex 
periences  another  political  twist  wrenching  his 
soul.  New  England  was  strongly  anti-slavery, 
and  mainly  Whig,  but  seemed  to  be  making  up  its 
mind  between  Taylor  and  Van  Buren.  At  Wor 
cester  Lincoln  spoke:  he  dwelt  upon  the  restriction 
of  slavery,  and  argued  that  Taylor  and  the  Whigs, 
who  were  silent  upon  the  subject,  were  more  to 
be  trusted  than  Van  Buren  and  the  Free-Soilers, 
who  made  the  Wilmot  Proviso  the  main  plank  of 
their  platform.  Still  Lincoln  would  have  hardly 
risked  such  a  speech  at  Washington  before  his 
Whig  club,  composed  of  Toombs,  Stephens,  Pres 
ton,  and  other  Southerners.  Again,  he  could  not 
help  feeling  the  dissonance  in  his  conduct,  as  well 
as  in  his  party  and  in  the  Nation.  He  is  begin 
ning  to  get  conscious  of  his  own  double  attitude, 
and  of  the  coming  struggle  so  carefully  hushed  by 
both  Whigs  and  Democrats  in  1848.  He  heard 
Seward  speak  in  Boston,  and  is  reported  to  have 
said  privately:  "Governor  Seward,  I  have  been 
thinking  about  what  you  said  in  your  speech.  I 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1848.  293 

reckon  you  are  right.  We  have  got  to  deal  with 
this  slavery  question,  and  got  to  give  much  more 
attention  to  it  hereafter  than  we  have  been 
doing." 

Surely  the  chief  issue  of  the  Age  cannot  be 
silenced,  and  Lincoln  begins  to  feel  his  own  and 
his  party's  discordant  attitude.  From  the  East 
he  goes  back  to  Illinois,  where  he  makes  speeches 
for  Taylor,  who  is  elected  by  a  handsome  ma 
jority.  He  returns  to  his  Congressional  duties 
and  serves  out  the  rest  of  his  term,  toned  down 
considerably  in  his  activity.  One  measure  he 
seeks  to  bring  about :  the  abolition  of  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  In  this,  however,  he 
is  foiled  at  the  time  and  has  to  wait  till  he  be 
comes  President.  On  March  4th,  1849,  Lincoln's 
Congressional  career  ends  with  the  inauguration  of 
the  Whig  President.  What  can  he  do  but  go 
home  to  work  over  and  out  of  the  soul-harassing 
dualism  into  which  he  has  been  precipitated?  He 
has  indeed  made  himself  national;  he  has  verily 
taken  up  the  Double  Nation  into  himself,  but  like 
wise  it  has  taken  up  him  into  itself,  and  trans 
formed  him  into  its  own  contradiction,  which  it, 
too,  is  to  work  over  and  out  of  in  the  coming 
years.  Both  the  man  and  the  Nation  are  thus 
seen  to  have  their  problem,  similar,  yet  separate; 
each  is  to  set  about  its  solution  apart  on  diverg 
ing  lines  in  the  next  epoch,  till  finally  they  will 
come  together  again  under  new  conditions. 


294        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

And  now  we  have  reached  the  point  at  which 
we  are  looking  about  for  Lincoln's  other  Self  or 
antitype,  the  doughty  Douglas,  who  has  been  at 
Washington  during  this  whole  epoch,  in  the  daz 
zling  perihelion  of  their  common  orbit,  flying  ever 
toward  the  central  luminary,  while  Lincoln  has 
been  rushing  to  his  remotest  aphelion,  where  he  is 
destined  to  wander  long  years  in  a  kind  of  peni 
tential  obscuration.  But  no  despair!  he,  too, 
will  slowly  whirl  about  and  sweep  Sunward. 

V. 

Lincoln  and  Douglas  (3). 

So  we  bring  before  the  eye  again  our  national 
Dioscuri,  moving  together  as  extremes  to  each 
other,  in  a  sort  of  antipodal  conjunction.  Let  not 
this  fact  of  a  common  basic  substrate  be  forgot 
ten  in  their  diverse  courses,  for  it  must  unite  them 
at  last.  But  during  the  present  epoch  (1842-9) 
their  apartness  is  verily  the  striking  point  in  their 
comparison.  Douglas  is  at  one  with  the  Double 
Nation,  whose  dualism  has  so  deeply  gone  into 
Lincoln  and  rendered  him  discordant  with  it  and 
himself.  Douglas  is  in  tune  with  the  Folk-Soul 
of  his  State,  and  has  plucked  its  highest  honors ; 
but  how  about  our  Lincoln?  Still  both  are  coun 
terparts  and  are  seen  reaching  out  from  the  same 
State  to  the  same  goal — the  National  Capital ;  each 
seeks  to  become  lawmaker  to  the  whole  Nation. 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (5)  295 

And  underneath  the  ambition  of  both  lurks  a  still 
greater  prize,  the  greatest  of  all,  the  Presidency. 
Each  has  in  his  heart  the  dream  of  every  Ameri 
can  public-man,  yea,  of  every  American  boy,  who 
has  in  him  the  possibility  of  reaching  the  top  of 
the  political  ladder.  Lincoln  and  Douglas  have 
both  become  national  in  their  activity,  having 
risen  from  the  State  to  the  Nation — so  much  they 
have  done  in  common  during  this  epoch. 

The  second  striking  fact  in  the  comparison  of 
their  careers  at  the  present  time  is  that  Douglas 
has  dashed  out  far  in  advance  of  Lincoln.  He 
had  entered  the  National  House  of  Representatives 
in  1843,  and  had  been  chosen  again  in  1845.  Lin 
coln  had  failed  both  these  times  to  get  the  nomi 
nation  in  the  Springfield  district  for  the  same  posi 
tion.  At  last,  after  two  failures,  he  won  the  prize 
and  went  to  the  opening  of  Congress  in  1847, 
where  he  saw  Douglas  taking  his  leave  of  the 
Lower  House  for  the  Upper.  Thus  they  were  not 
brought  face  to  face  in  their  contest,  as  they  had 
been  in  the  Illinois  House  of  Representatives  in 
1836.  Their  lines  did  not  cross,  though  leading 
in  their  same  general  direction;  they  seem  never 
to  have  associated  in  Washington,  though  they 
had  long  known  each  other. 

But  just  behold  the  Gods  pouring  down  upon 
the  head  of  Douglas  their  bounties  in  that  copious 
year  1847 !  First  of  all  the  Legislature  of  Illinois 
elects  him  its  Senator,  and  Lincoln,  entering  the 


296       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Capitol,  could  behold  his  younger  rival  winging 
ever  upward,  far  ahead  of  him  in  fame  and  honor. 
Then  Douglas  was  at  once  appointed  Chairman  of 
the  Senatorial  Committee  on  Territories — really 
the  most  important  chairmanship  of  Congress. 
In  the  House  he  had  already  held  the  same  posi 
tion,  in  which  he  had  made  himself  the  great  au 
thority  upon,  as  well  as  the  Congressional  super 
visor  over,  the  vast  area  of  the  North-Western 
territory  out  of  which  a  dozen  new  States  could 
in  time  be  made.  It  shows  unquestioned  insight 
that  Douglas  seized  upon  the  pivotal  function  of 
the  Union  as  State-producing  for  his  special 
sphere  of  activity  in  the  National  Legislature, 
since  he  thus  placed  himself  at  the  center  of  the 
Nation's  History  for  the  coming  twelve  years. 
And  let  us  not  forget  the  crown  of  all  these 
earthly  blessings — his  marriage  with  a  fair  lady  of 
the  South,  wealthy  and  of  high  social  position. 
And  this,  too,  was  showered  down  upon  him  from 
that  cornucopia  of  a  year  1847.  It  should  also 
be  added  that  during  these  same  months  many  a 
whisper  among  his  friends  suggested  him  as  a 
candidate  for  the  coming  Presidency,  though  he 
was  only  thirty- four  years  old.  But  next  year 
(1848)  by  the  time  of  the  Presidential  election,  he 
will  be  thirty-five,  the  age  required  by  the  Con 
stitution  for  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Nation. 

A  significant  act  of  Douglas  occurred    in  con 
nection    with    his    marriage  to  Miss  Martin,  the 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (8)  297 

mentioned  Southern  lady,  in  1847.  The  day  after 
the  celebration  of  the  nuptials,  his  father-in-law 
handed  him  a  deed  of  a  plantation  stocked  with 
slaves  in  Mississippi.  Douglas  at  once  declined 
the  present  and  returned  the  deed,  stating  that 
he  was  a  Northern  man  by  birth,  education,  and 
residence,  and  that  he  expected  to  remain  such; 
moreover,  that  he  was  ignorant  of  that  descrip 
tion  of  property,  and  would  have  to  decline  the 
responsibility  of  taking  care  of  it.  But  he  added 
that  he  was  no  abolitionist,  and  had  no  sympathy 
with  their  wild  and  ultra  views.  Afterwards  the 
grandfather  left  the  estate  to  the  children  of  Mrs. 
and  Mr.  Douglas.  The  latter  once  in  the  Senate 
declared,  in  replying  to  an  attack:  "I  was  unwill 
ing  to  assume  responsibilities  which  I  was  inca 
pable  of  fulfilling." 

Always  the  question  will  come  up :  Did  Douglas 
assign  his  true  motive  in  this  statement?  We  be 
lieve  that  he  did  not  personally  like  to  be  a  slave 
holder;  he  was  a  born  New-Englander  and  was  an 
Illinoisan  by  adoption;  so  much  of  the  Northern 
spirit  he  shared.  But  if  any  other  man  wished  to 
hold  slaves,  he  had  nothing  to  say  in  moral  repro 
bation;  and  if  the  Southerners  wished  to  make 
Slave  States,  he  could  look  on  and  say,  as  he  did 
later:  "I  don't  care."  Undoubtedly  he  saw  it 
would  be  a  drawback  to  his  political  prospects  in 
Illinois,  if  he  was  known  to  be  a  slave-owner  in 
Mississippi,  and  that  motive  must  have  co-oper- 


298      ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

ated  in  making  him  so  keenly  sensitive  to  the 
dangerous  responsibility  of  such  property.  Still, 
we  must  think  that  Douglas,  otherwise  quite  in 
different,  was  personally  averse  to  owning  a  human 
being.  And  this  the  Southerners  knew,  and  hence 
they  always  distrusted  him.  The  act  just  men 
tioned,  generally  known  as  it  was,  must  have 
been  offensive  to  the  slaveholder.  Douglas  openly 
declined  his  company,  refusing  directly  to  be  one 
of  the  great  and  powerful  Southern  oligarchy,  which 
never  forgave  him,  in  spite  of  his  services.  This 
we  shall  see  when  the  test  came  in  three  successive 
Democratic  Conventions  which  nominated  can 
didates  for  the  Presidency.  Douglas  remained 
unpopular  with  the  Southern  wing  of  Democrats, 
who  did  not  fail  to  take  some  other  Northern  man 
as  their  true  friend  or  tool.  This  may  well  be 
deemed  the  secret  breach  of  Douglas  with  the 
Southern  President-makers  of  the  coming  decade, 
a  breach  which  he  will  try  in  vain  to  heal,  till  at 
last  he  grows  defiant  and  splits  his  party. 

In  the  year  1847,  accordingly,  Lincoln,  as  he  en 
tered  Washington,  could  have  seen  his  lucky  anti 
type  in  a  state  of  superb  efflorescence.  For 
Douglas  then  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate  from 
their  common  Illinois,  so  far  ahead  was  he,  though 
four  years  younger;  also,  his  wonderful  flowering 
seemed  to  find  fit  expression  in  his  leading  to  the 
altar  a  blooming  bride,  wealthy,  cultivated,  of  the 
inner  social  circle  at  the  Capital.  But  we  must 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (3)  299 

mark  at  the  same  time  the  fatal  counter-stroke  in 
the  happy  prospect:  Douglas  offends  at  the  most 
sensitive  point  the  ruling  spirits  of  the  South,  of 
his  Party,  and  of  the  Nation.  Unconsciously  he 
breaches  his  own  Destiny  in  the  very  moment  of 
its  seeming  triumph.  Never  will  he  be  President 
now  in  spite  of  the  most  flattering  prospects;  the 
Southern  Warwicks  will  not  accept  him  but  will 
slaughter  him  in  Convention  after  Convention, 
making  the  way  finally  for  one  Lincoln. 

Still  Douglas  is  on  the  topmost  wave  of  honor 
and  political  success,  when  Lincoln  leaves  Wash 
ington  in  1849,  in  a  discord  with  himself  and  with 
his  people.  The  Springfield  district  had  elected  a 
Democratic  representative  to  succeed  him,  having 
discarded  his  old  Whig  friend,  Judge  Logan,  who 
was  the  nominee.  This  result  was  openly  attrib 
uted  to  Lincoln's  course  on  the  Mexican  War. 
Lincoln,  therefore,  feels  that  he  goes  back  to  a 
constituency  which  has  rejected  him.  He  em 
braced  at  first  the  idea  of  taking  office  under  the 
Taylor  administration;  he  thought  of  accepting 
the  governorship  of  Oregon  territory,  but  his  wife 
objected;  he  applied  to  be  the  Commissioner  of  the 
General  Land  Office,  but  failed.  He  was  thrust 
back  into  his  old  Springfield  vocation  of  a  practis 
ing  lawyer,  and  had  in  a  manner  to  start  anew. 
Douglas  kept  in  harmony  with  the  Folk-Soul  of 
the  State;  Lincoln  was  out  of  tune  with  it,  and 
had  to  win  it  over  again. 


300       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Lincoln  must  then  bide  his  time.  Issues  are 
arising  which  will  completely  reverse  their  pres 
ent  conditions;  in  1854,  Douglas  will  experience 
the  angry  hostility  of  the  Folk-Soul  for  his  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  while  Lincoln  will 
rise  to  the  surface  once  more  concordant  with  his 
people.  This  will,  indeed,  constitute  a  new  epoch 
in  the  life  of  Lincoln,  yea,  in  the  life  of  both  these 
antagonists.  But  at  present  Douglas  is  completely 
triumphant,  and  stays  at  the  Capital,  always  ad 
vancing  in  honor  and  influence,  while  Lincoln  is 
remanded  back  by  the  Presiding  Powers  over  his 
destiny  to  his  State  for  what  we  can  now  see  to 
be  a  new  training. 

Casting  another  look  at  Lincoln's  fortune-nursed 
antagonist,  that  antitypal  Douglas,  we  observe 
once  more  that  he  rises  to  a  prominent  place  in 
the  Senate  during  these  two  years  (1847-9),  and 
becomes  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Ter 
ritories,  at  that  time  altogether  the  most  influen 
tial  position  in  the  Senate,  or  rather  in  the  legisla 
tive  branch  of  the  Government.  For  the  grand 
coming  problem  of  the  Nation  pivots  just  upon 
these  Territories:  Shall  they  be  Slave-States  or 
Free-States?  Or,  more  deeply  stated:  Shall  this 
Nation  be  generative  of  Slave-States  or  Free- 
States?  Thus  Douglas  has  planted  himself  at  the 
very  heart  of  the  Nation's  historic  future;  yea,  at 
the  turn  of  a  node  in  the  World's  History.  So  we 
take  a  look  at  him,  of  course,  with  admiration,  as 


THE  DOUBLE  LINCOLN.  301 

he  mounts  up  and  perches  himself  on  the  highest 
pinnacle  of  his  hitherto  ever-mounting  career. 

But  what  about  Lincoln?  See  him  in  a  thick 
cloud  of  native  gloom,  turning  down  the  road 
from  Washington  back  to  Springfield,  after  his  two 
years  of  Congressional  experience,  completely  dis 
credited  by  the  people  of  his  own  section  (the 
North- West),  of  his  own  State,  and  even  of  his 
Representative  District.  What  is  to  become  of 
him? 

VI. 
The-  Double  Lincoln, 

The  Double  Nation  has  now  certainly  produced 
the  Double  Lincoln  through  his  biennial  experience 
at  the  Capital.  He  is,  indeed,  nationalized,  having 
appropriated  to  the  full  within  himself  the 
national  dualism.  From  that  former  inner  one 
ness  and  harmony  with  the  Folk-Soul  of  his  Sec 
tion,  State,  and  District,  he  has  been  whelmed 
into  the  vortex  and  raging  contradiction  of  an  un- 
united  Union,  which  is  sweeping  more  and  more 
toward  complete  Disunion.  Yet  just  this  is  what 
he  has  to  take  up  into  his  soul  now,  and  to  work 
it  and  himself  over  into  a  new  unity.  Truly  a 
time  of  severance,  of  discord,  of  negation,  has 
come  into  his  life — a  deep  breach  with  himself, 
with  his  People;  yea,  with  the  World-Spirit. 

1.  He  has  acted  in  opposition  to  the  Folk-Soul 
as  regards  the  acquisition  of  the  territory  which 


302        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

extends  Southward  to  the  Rio  Grande  and  East 
ward  to  the  Pacific.  He  has  pleaded  the  law  of 
nations  in  favor  of  Mexico,  who  wrested  this  ter 
ritory  from  Spain,  who  wrested  it  from  the  In 
dians,  who  wrested  it  from  the  mound-builders 
(probably),  who  wrested  it  from  God  knows  whom 
(probably).  The  logic  of  this  law  of  nations  is 
that  the  strongest  nation  takes  the  prize,  accord 
ing  Mexico's  own  deed  and  that  of  the  rest.  But 
there  is  a  higher  logic,  we  think  and  hope,  than 
that  of  mere  violence.  Civilization  demands  of 
all  peoples,  savage  or  otherwise,  What  are  you 
doing  with  that  piece  of  God's  earth  entrusted  to 
your  stewardship?  Are  you  making  the  most  of 
it  for  yourself  and  for  all  the  rest?  If  not,  you 
must  be  brought  to  the  account.  So  is  now  say 
ing  the  Genius  of  Civilization  or  the  World-Spirit, 
which  Lincoln,  biased  by  party,  does  not  at  pres 
ent  hear,  but  will  hear. 

2.  Lincoln  votes  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  whose 
essence  is  that  the  Union  is  to  be  henceforth  Free- 
State  producing.  But  at  the  same  time  he  votes 
for  a  political  Party  which  smothers  this  very 
principle  in  its  Convention.  Deeply  inconsistent 
with  himself  he  has  become,  and  really  subversive 
of  his  own  destiny.  He  is  still  too  much  of  a 
Whig  partisan  to  vote  for  Van  Buren,  a  Demo 
crat,  against  whom  he  had  fought  two  Presidential 
campaigns.  Yet  Van  Buren  with  his  platform  is 
the  open  supporter  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  Lin- 


THE  DOUBLE  LINCOLN.  303 

coin's  pivotal  principle  and  the  beacon  of  his 
future  career.  He  has,  therefore,  to  slough  off  the 
encumbering  snake-skin  of  party — which  he  slowly 
proceeds  to  do,  when  the  old  snake  itself  dies  and 
leaves  him  free. 

3.  Lincoln's  visit  to  New  England  during  the 
campaign  of  1848,  was  significant  to  him  in  sev 
eral  ways.  He  became  more  decidedly  conscious 
of  the  Double  Nation  and  of  his  Double  Self  than 
ever  before.  From  the  dominating  pro-slavery 
atmosphere  of  Washington  he  suddenly  ran  into  a 
strong  whiff  of  anti-slaveryism.  He  felt  the 
change  and  emphasized  in  his  speech  the  Wilmot 
Proviso  and  General  Taylor's  probable  leaning  to 
ward  Free-Stateism,  though  the  General  was  a 
born  Southerner  and  a  large  slaveholder.  Then 
he  turned  his  ridicule  against  the  Free-Soilers, 
whose  doctrine  was  chiefly  the  Wilmot  Proviso. 
We  hold  that  Lincoln  felt  the  deep  inner  disso 
nance  of  his  own  argument,  which  he  sought  to 
drown  in  his  grotesquery.  Then,  0  Lincoln,  what 
would  your  friends  of  the  Whig  Club  at  Washing 
ton,  Stephens,  Toombs,  Preston,  say  to  your  pres 
ent  anti-slavery  turn?  Do  you  not  feel  the  two- 
facedness  in  your  Whiggery,  and  what  is  more,  in 
yourself?  And  can  honest  Abe  long  stand  that? 
And  far  more  profoundly  than  ever  do  you  not 
feel  the  doubleness  in  the  Nation? 

In  fact,  just  this  doubleness  of  himself  and  of 
his  Nation  is  his  problem,  and  furnishes  his  com- 


304       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

ing  task.  He  is  to  undo  both,  first  that  within, 
then  that  without.  But  he  must  become  aware  of 
his  own  and  the  Nation's  dualism,  ere  he  can  per 
form  his  work.  His  transition  from  South  to 
North,  from  Washington  to  New  England,  has 
deepened  to  the  bottom  his  consciousness,  both  of 
his  personal  and  of  the  political  situation. 

4.  In  his  visit  to  New  England  Lincoln  caught 
a  glimpse  of  another  very  significant  fact :  Anti- 
slavery  disunionism  existed  there  in  no  small 
energy,  and  shook  hands  with  the  pro-slavery  dis 
unionism  of  the  South.  He  began  to  realize  fully 
the  difference  between  his  own  Free-States  of  the 
North-West  and  the  Free-States  of  the  North- 
East,  both  being  alike  in  their  freedom.  But  the 
one  group  sprang  of  the  Union,  the  other  not ;  the 
one  was  American-born,  the  other  European-born, 
and  each  showed  distinctly  its  birth-mark;  the  one 
was  national  through  origin,  the  other  through 
agreement  or  compact;  the  one  loved  as  its  own 
very  mother  the  Union,  the  other  had  no  such 
mother  to  love.  Lincoln  felt  this  difference  be 
tween  the  two  groups  of  Free-States  in  affection 
for  the  Union,  and  he  is  destined  to  have  more 
experience  of  the  fact  at  a  later  time.  Already 
in  Congress  we  have  heard  him  discriminate  him 
self:  "I  am  a  Northern  man,  or  rather  a  Western 
Free-State  man" — the  North  having  both  West 
ern  and  Eastern  Free-State  men,  one  set  quite 
distinct  from  the  other.  How  Lincoln  will  union- 


THE  DOUBLE  LINCOLN.  305 

ize  the  old  Free-States    of  the   North-East,  for 
they,  too,  need  it,  belongs  to  a  later  chapter. 

But  now  we  are  to  see  Lincoln  passing  back 
from  the  Nation  to  the  State,  and  quite  sinking 
out  of  sight  for  a  time,  rent  asunder  and  paralyzed 
by  his  inner  conflict.  Meanwhile  Douglas,  who 
has  no  such  conflict  within  or  without,  mounts  to 
his  highest  splendor  and  becomes  the  central  polit 
ical  luminary  of  the  country. 

20 


CHAPTER  SECOND. 

^Lincoln's  Subsidence* 

So  we  designate  a  peculiar  epoch  of  Lincoln's 
life,  the  six  years  succeeding  his  Congressional 
career.  He  reached  the  center  of  the  Nation  at 
the  Capital,  and  there  he  came  upon  the  deep 
scission  of  the  time,  in  which  he  participated  but 
which  he  did  not  and  could  not  then  solve.  "Go 
back,  go  back  to  thy  Springfield  home,"  cry  the 
Powers,  "and  labor  at  the  mighty  problem  in  the 
stillness  of  the  night;  for  we  have  yet  work  for 
thee."  So  Lincoln  went  home  and  began  anew 
the  practice  of  his  profession  outwardly,  but  in 
wardly  there  is  little  doubt  that  he  had  many 
meditations  upon  the  meaning  of  his  surprisingly 
discordant  experience  at  Washington. 

Lincoln  marks  significantly  this  time  of  political 
Subsidence  in  both  his  little  autobiographies.  In 
the  first  he  says:  "From  1849  to  1854,  both  inclu 
sive,  I  practised  law  more  assiduously  than  ever 
before.  Always  a  Whig  in  politics,  and  generally 
on  the  Whig  electoral  tickets  making  active  can 
vasses,  I  was  losing  interest  in  politics  when  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  aroused  me 
again."  Which  means  that  his  Whiggism  was 
vanishing  and  the  political  attitude  of  his  party 
was  losing  its  hold  on  him.  In  his  second  sketch 
(306) 


CHAPTER  SECOND— LINCOLN'S  SUBSIDENCE.    307 

of  himself  he  reiterates  substantially  the  foregoing 
statements,  emphasizing  that  "in  1854  his  pro 
fession  had  almost  superseded  the  thought  of  poli 
tics  in  his  mind  when  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  aroused  him  as  he  had  never  been 
before."  Then  he  comes  to  the  surface  again  and 
starts  on  a  new  phase  of  his  career,  most  import 
ant  of  all. 

From  his  subsidence  in  1849  till  his  emergence 
in  1854-5,  extends  the  present  epoch  of  Lincoln's 
life.  We  have  to  ask  what  was  he  doing  these 
six  years?  Undoubtedly  he  was  engaged  in  the 
practice  of  the  law,  but  at  the  same  time  he  was 
undergoing  a  profound  inner  revolution.  Mentally 
he  was  occupied  as  never  before.  But  the  diffi 
culty  is  that  he  has  left  almost  no  record  of  this 
time.  Some  of  his  anecdotes  while  he  traveled  the 
circuit  have  been  preserved,  but  they  were  hardly 
more  than  his  outer  diversion,  his  relief  from  the 
pressing  thoughts  within.  When  he  comes  into 
the  White  House,  we  shall  often  witness  him  em 
ploying  them,  not  only  for  expression,  but  as  the 
safety-valve  of  his  soul's  tense  emotions.  Lincoln 
was  forty  years  old  when  he  left  Congress,  being 
in  the  very  bloom  of  his  intellectual  power,  which 
he  is  undoubtedly  exercising,  even  though  in 
secret.  If  we  look  through  his  Collected  Works 
for  passing  glimpses  into  his  inner  life  during  these 
years,  we  are  surprised  at  the  meagreness  of  the 
printed  output.  Perhaps  the  most  important 


308       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

document  is  his  eulogy  of  Henry  Clay,  delivered 
July  16th,  1852.  During  the  Presidential  cam 
paign  of  1852,  he  confesses  that  he  did  little  can 
vassing  for  his  candidate,  Scott.  Some  scattered 
fragments  on  government,  on  slavery,  on  law, 
show  his  efforts  at  thinking  fundamentally  on  these 
topics.  Thus  his  outer  life  as  historic  almost  dis 
appears,  having  little  or  no  record,  not  being  in 
volved  practically  in  the  political  events  of  the 
time,  though  these  must  have  influenced  him. 

Still  we  catch  now  and  then  a  glimpse  of  what 
he  was  thinking  about,  perchance  of  his  deepest 
pivotal  thought.  He  repeatedly  said  that  the  re 
peal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was,  for  him,  the 
mighty  shock  of  a  new  birth.  The  ever-recurring 
Kansas  troubles  kept  the  subject  alive  in  his  own 
soul  and  in  that  of  the  people.  It  is  reported  that 
on  his  circuit  at  this  time  he,  to  a  great  extent, 
dropped  his  story-telling,  and  was  always  discuss 
ing  with  his  legal  friends  the  problem  which  had 
so  ominously  dawned  upon  the  whole  country. 
He  would  not  dismiss  it  by  day  or  night.  Here 
is  a  suggestive  bit  which  comes  from  a  legal  asso 
ciate,  Judge  Dickey,  who  was  attending  court 
with  Lincoln  and  several  friends  at  the  height  of 
the  excitement  over  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill: 

One  evening  several  persons,  including  himself 
(Judge  Dickey)  and  Lincoln,  waxed  hot  over  the 
question  of  the  day.  The  Judge,  being  strongly 
conservative,  asserted  that  slavery  could  not  be 


CHAPTER  SECOND— LINCOLN'S  SUBSIDENCE.    309 

assailed  in  the  States  where  it  was  established,  as 
it  was  recognized  by  the  Constitution.  Lincoln 
maintained  the  ultimate  extinction  of  slavery,  and 
seemed  to  see  the  beginning  of  such  an  outcome 
in  the  repeal  of  Missouri  Compromise.  "After  a 
while,"  continues  the  Judge,  "we  went  up  stairs 
to  bed.  There  were  two  beds  in  the  room,  and  I 
recollect  that  Lincoln  sat  up  in  his  night  shirt  on 
the  edge  of  the  bed,  arguing  the  point  with  me. 
At  last  we  went  to  sleep.  Early  in  the  morning 
I  woke  up  and  there  was  Lincoln  half  sitting  up 
in  bed.  ' Dickey/  he  said,  'this  Nation  cannot 
exist  half  slave  and  half  free/  '0,  Lincoln/  said 
I,  'go  to  sleep.'"  (Miss  TarbelFs  Lincoln  I,  288). 

This  exceedingly  significant  and  picturesque  an 
ecdote  seems  to  be  the  first  authentic  record  of 
Lincoln's  famous  dictum,  which  really  contains 
the  pith  of  his  whole  career  and  achievement: 
this  Nation  cannot  exist  half  slave  and  half  free. 
Nor  should  we  fail  to  note  the  contrast  between 
him  and  the  legal-minded  Judge,  his  companion, 
who  regards  the  Constitution  as  the  unalterable 
grand  finality,  though  it  provides  for  its  own 
change,  and  who,  typical  of  many  thousands, 
refuses  to  hear  the  call  of  the  age,  bidding  his 
agitated  associate  "go  to  sleep,"  while  he  seem 
ingly  turns  over  and  takes  another  nap. 

But  Lincoln  does  not  go  to  sleep  after  such  a 
mighty  wrestle  of  the  spirit;  he  will  never  go  to 
sleep  again  upon  this  question  till  death  overtakes 


310       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

him  with  its  last  sleep,  and  till  he  has  not  only  ut 
tered  but  made  real  that  "this  Nation  cannot  ex 
ist  half  slave  and  half  free."  Truly  Lincoln  has 
now  heard  the  voice  of  the  time,  and  is  becoming 
its  mouthpiece.  The  approaching  great  act  of  the 
World's  History  he  has  glimpsed  and  briefly  form 
ulated,  as  yet  only  in  private  discussion.  We  may, 
indeed,  say  that  he  has  risen  to  a  vision  of  the 
World-Spirit,  and  has  received  its  decree,  of  whose 
fulfilment  he  is  to  be  the  chief  instrument. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Lincoln,  especially 
in  1854-5,  keeps  brooding  deeply  over  the  political 
outcome.  He  began  even  to  think  himself  an 
Abolitionist — a  name  which  he  had  always 
eschewed.  He  saw  that  the  conflict  could  not 
end  without  the  Nation  becoming  all  one  or  the 
other,  all  slave  or  all  free.  In  a  private  letter 
(August,  1855),  he  declares:  "Our  political  prob 
lem  is:  Can  we,  as  a  Nation,  continue  together 
permanently,  forever,  half  slave  and  half  free?" 
So  he  re-iterates  what  he  deems  the  pivotal  ques 
tion  of  the  time,  and  implies  his  conclusion  pri 
vately.  It  is  said  that  Lincoln  proposed  to  de 
clare  in  a  public  speech  his  new  view,  but  was 
dissuaded  by  the  advice  of  friends.  At  last  the 
time  came  when  he  could  be  no  longer  deterred, 
when  the  real  issue  must  be  openly  proclaimed. 
June  16th,  1858,  in  a  speech  delivered  at  the 
close  of  the  Republican  Convention  which  nomi 
nated  him  as  candidate  for  Senator  against 


CHAPTER  SECOND— LINCOLN'S  SUBSIDENCE.  311 

Douglas,  he  made  his  famous  statement  that  "a 
house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand/'  to 
which  he  added  that  this  government  cannot  en 
dure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  Such 
was  his  overture  to  the  epoch-making  campaign 
between  himself  and  Douglas.  Long  had  he  rumi 
nated  upon  the  thought,  discussing  it  among 
friends  and  withholding  its  public  expression  for 
some  three  years. 

This  conclusion  he  drew  from  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  Again  and  again  has  the 
wall  between  freedom  and  slavery  been  put  up  by 
the  old  set  of  statesmen,  but  now  it  has  been  torn 
down,  and,  to  tell  the  truth,  neither  side,  neither 
South  nor  North,  will  allow  it  to  be  erected  anew. 
Over  the  line  each  section  cries  out  to  the  other: 
No  restriction  upon  me.  Slavery  insists  upon 
going  into  the  territories,  freedom  insists  upon 
keeping  it  out.  And  that  is  not  all;  each  side  is 
getting  ready  to  fight;  in  fact,  they  grapple  al 
ready  during  1855  in  Kansas,  and  start  the  over 
ture  of  the  Ten  Years'  War,  which  Lincoln  felt 
was  approaching,  though  he  did  not  expect  it  to 
come  with  such  a  sudden  and  mighty  crash. 

So  we  conceive  the  main  fact  of  Lincoln's  epoch 
of  Subsidence,  lying  at  the  center  of  his  active  life, 
and  making  a  sort  of  subterranean  channel  be 
tween  the  before  and  the  after  of  his  career.  A 
long  and  silent  incubation  between  his  fortieth  and 
forty-sixth  years,  we  may  well  deem  it  a  preoara- 


312       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

tion  for  his  coming  task,  a  working  himself  free 
of  the  inner  dissonance  which  he  took  home  from 
Congress,  where  he  voted  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso, 
but  supported  a  political  party  which  suppressed 
its  principle.  But  when  he  discerns  the  inner 
voice  proclaiming,  this  country  cannot  exist  half 
slave  and  half  free,  he  has  heard  the  call  of  the 
World-Spirit,  and  his  world-historical  career  has 
begun  to  dawn. 

During  this  sunken  time  of  life,  along  with  his 
introspection  and  questionings,  Lincoln  gave  much 
effort  to  mending  his  defective  education.  His 
association  with  leading  men  at  Washington 
caused  him  to  feel  his  lack  of  knowledge.  Among 
the  few  items  for  his  Congressional  biography  he 
sets  down:  "Education  defective."  But  partic 
ularly  his  visit  to  Massachusetts  and  the  East 
showed  him  his  scholastic  shortcomings,  which  he 
resolved  to  remedy.  Famous  has  become  his 
study  of  Euclid  while  upon  the  circuit.  Literature 
also  he  delved  into  more  seriously  than  ever; 
Shakespeare's  dramas  were  read  and  pondered  in 
their  entirety,  though  he  had  known  extracts 
from  them  since  his  boyhood.  The  School  Read 
ers  of  the  time,  notably  Lindley  Murray's,  which 
Lincoln  knew  and  praised  highly,  had  passages 
from  Shakespeare.  Herndon  observes  that  he 
studied  law  more  seriously  than  ever  before.  A 
general  inner  reconstruction  he  evidently  under- 


CHAPTER  SECOND—LINCOLN'S  SUBSIDENCE.  313 

took,  being  thrown  back  violently  upon  his  own 
limitations  from  the  Washington  experience. 

It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  he  found  his  chief 
pleasure  in  traveling  the  circuit  from  county  to 
county.  The  communion  with  the  Folk-Soul  was 
his  delight ;  moreover,  he  was  mending  the  breach 
between  it  and  himself,  caused  by  his  attitude  in 
Congress  toward  the  Mexican  War.  He  watched 
its  response  to  the  political  movements  of  the 
time;  especially  did  he  feel  its  pulse  in  regard  to 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  when  he 
found  himself  in  harmony  with  it  again,  after  a 
long  separation.  Indeed,  one  of  the  main  func 
tions  of  this  long  Subsidence  was  to  work  an  inner 
restoration  of  himself  to  the  People,  in  which 
labor  his  great  rival  Douglas  unconsciously  came 
to  his  assistance. 

And  that  fortune-wreathed  antitype  of  his,  the 
well-rounded  rubicund  Douglas,  must  be  noticed 
by  way  of  necessary  counterpart,  verily  the  transi 
tional  Statesman  bridging  the  old  into  the  new, 
and  always  going  up  while  Lincoln  seems  going  or 
quite  gone  down,  till  the  hour  strikes  for  the  sud 
den  turn  in  the  careers  of  both.  Again,  we  con 
ceive  of  them  as  the  antipodal  Dioscuri  of  the 
age,  twinned  in  celestial  genius  and  planted  as  op- 
posites  on  a  common  territorial  sphere,  so  that 
while  the  one  sinks  in  the  sundown,  the  other 
mounts  seemingly  irradiated  in  an  eternal  sunrise. 
But  let  us  look  again  at  them  after  the  sexennial 


314       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

revolution  of  an  epoch:  the  one  is  seen  slowly 
climbing  above  the  horizon  in  anew  radiance, 
while  the  other  on  his  side  begins  his  downward 
course  to  his  luminous  setting. 

As  the  deepest  strain  of  Lincoln's  character 
was  political,  and  as  he  was  the  coming  states 
man  of  a  great  historic  period,  we  have  specially 
to  look  at  the  political  events  of  this,  his  sunken 
sexennium,  and  to  scan  their  influence  upon  him, 
as  far  as  possible.  The  Nation  was  moving  to 
ward  the  crisis  when  it  would  have  to  get  rid  of 
its  distracting,  self-destroying  dualism,  and  Lin 
coln  was  moving  with  it,  till  he  became  its  voice 
in  the  new  epoch.  Still,  during  these  six  years 
the  double  nationality  made  a  tremendous  effort 
to  stay  double  peacefully,  and  to  instill  such 
doubleness  into  the  People  as  the  prime  sentiment 
of  patriotism.  Every  good  American  citizen  was 
exhorted  to  be  as  dual  as  his  Nation — so  say  in 
substance  both  platforms,  Whig  and  Democratic, 
in  the  Presidential  election  of  1852.  But  that 
simply  could  not  be;  the  human  soul  must  at 
last  come  to  unity  with  itself,  in  order  to  be  itself. 
Then  another  decree  was  getting  louder,  sterner, 
and  more  imperious  in  the  Folk-Soul,  the  decree 
that  its  dualism,  both  individually  and  nationally, 
must  be  eliminated.  A  voice  mightier  than  that 
of  the  Nation  began  to  be  heard,  commanding 
it  to  unify  itself  and  thus  to  put  itself  in  line 
with  the  movement  of  the  World's  History,  which 


COMPROMISE  OF  1850.  315 

through  its  own  development  was  requiring  a 
federated  Union  of  States  in  the  American  Occi 
dent,  and  not  a  disunited  Dyarchy. 

But  our  present  task  is  to  observe  the  dual 
Nation  seeking  to  keep  itself  dual,  and  to  watch 
the  reflection  thereof  in  Lincoln's  unfolding. 

I. 

The  Compromise  of  1850. 

In  the  Congress  succeeding  that  to  which  Lin 
coln  belonged,  the  slavery  question  broke  out 
with  greater  fury  than  ever  before.  The  South 
had  set  its  heart  upon  making  the  lands  acquired 
from  Mexico  into  Slave  States,  to  counterbalance 
the  extensive  territory  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase 
in  the  North- West,  destined  to  become  Free  States 
by  the  Missouri  Compromise.  On  the  other  hand 
the  North,  quite  irrespective  of  political  parties, 
had  about  made  up  its  mind  that  no  more 
Slave  States  should  be  formed  out  of  the  public 
domain  anywhere.  The  cleavage  between  the 
two  sections  seemed  to  be  widening,  with  not  a 
few  dire  threats  on  both  sides.  The  one  American 
Folk-Soul  had  indeed  become  twain  with  a  divided 
purpose,  yea,  with  a  divided  conscience. 

It  was  at  this  point  that  Mr.  Clay  came  forward 
with  his  attempt  to  heal  the  breach  by  a  new 
compromise.  In  a  way  he  belonged  to  both  sides; 
he  was  a  Southern  man  with  Northern  convic- 


316        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

tions,  and  his  State  lay,  as  it  were,  intermediate 
between  North  and  South.  The  dualism  of  the 
Nation  seemed  to  embody  itself  in  him  through 
the  fact  that  he  was  an  anti-slavery  slaveholder. 
Clay  had  taken  part  in  the  Missouri  Compromise 
of  1820,  though  he  was  not  its  author,  as  has  been 
sometimes  stated.  He  appeared  again  in  the  Sen 
ate  for  the  last  act  of  his  career,  yea,  for  the  last 
act  of  the  compromising  period  of  American  states 
manship,  which  recognized  and  sought  to  harmon 
ize  the  inner  dualism  of  the  Nation.  Lincoln  in 
his  Springfield  home,  ruminating  on  the  same 
problem  followed  Clay,  who  had  always  been  his 
pattern  and  Whig  ideal. 

The  pivot  upon  which  the  main  trouble  turned 
found  its  expression  chiefly  in  the  Wilmot  Pro 
viso,  which  Lincoln  had  so  often  voted  for  during 
his  Congressional  term.  The  South  had  come  to 
hate  it,  while  the  North  had  largely  adopted  it, 
and  made  it  a  test  of  fidelity.  The  Wilmot  Pro 
viso  implied  the  moral  wrong  of  the  slaveholder 
and  the  curse  of  slavery  on  the  land;  it  had  be 
come,  therefore,  exceedingly  distasteful  even  to 
the  moderate  men  of  the  South,  who  were  united 
against  it  as  against  nothing  else.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Northerner,  who  was  hostile  to  slavery, 
with  unflagging  zeal  supported  it  as  the  very 
touchstone  of  his  principle. 

This  main  bone  of  contention  Clay  omitted  and 
had  to  omit  from  his  Compromise.  Such  action 


COMPROMISE  OF  1850.  317 

lost  him  the  support  of  the  more  radical  anti-sla 
very  Congressmen,  but  drew  to  him  strong  con 
servative  support,  which  pulled  his  measure 
through.  Practically  it  was  favorable  to  the 
Free-State  men,  since  it  provided  for  the  admis 
sion  of  California  with  her  constitution  prohibit 
ing  slavery,  and  for  the  organization  of  the  terri 
tories  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  just  as  they  were, 
under  the  Mexican  law  which,  unless  set  aside,  se 
cured  their  freedom.  But  no  Wilmot  Proviso, 
that  reddest  of  red  rags  to  the  Southern  bull, 
was  allowed.  The  result  was  many  Southerners 
supported  the  Compromise,  though  the  extremists 
of  their  section  were  hostile  to  it  from  the  start, 
joining  hands  with  the  Northern  extremists  in  op 
position.  Seward  and  Jefferson  Davis,  the  su 
preme  anti-slavery  and  pro-slavery  protagonists, 
could  be  seen  voting  on  the  same  side  of  the 
question.  The  outcome  was  regarded  as  a  pretty 
fair  division  of  the  Mexican  spoils  between  the 
two  sections.  The  South  had  gotten  Texas  with 
the  possibility  of  four  more  Slave-States  while 
the  North  had  practically  secured  the  rest  of  the 
territory,  though  there  was  some  uncertainty 
about  New  Mexico.  The  general  nature  of  the 
Compromise  is  well  illustrated  in  the  provision 
pertaining  to  the  District  of  Columbia:  the  slave 
trade  was  abolished  in  its  limits,  but  not  slavery. 
The  Missouri  Compromise  line  was  not  a  deter 
mining  element  in  the  bill  as  passed,  though  it 


318      ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

rose    to    the  surface   often  during    the    discus 
sions. 

Such  was  the  main  matter,  the  territorial  ad 
justment,  which  was  in  general  acceptable  to  the 
country.  The  Compromise  of  1850  still  recognized 
the  dual  character  of  the  Nation  as  half  slave  and 
half  free.  Moreover  it  practically  affirmed  that 
each  section  was  productive  of  new  States  of  its 
own  kind.  The  Union  as  genetic  remained  still 
double — both  Slave-State  producing  and  Free- 
State  producing.  The  Wilmot  Proviso  had  sought 
to  deprive  the  Southern  half  of  its  self-creating 
power  by  excluding  slavery  from  all  the  territo 
ries.  On  the  other  hand  the  Southern  extremists 
had  maintained,  with  Calhoun  and  Jefferson 
Davis,  that  the  common  domain  of  the  country 
should  be  open  to  slavery.  There  is  no  doubt, 
however,  that  the  People  as  a  whole  embracing 
the  moderates  both  Northern  and  Southern,  found 
its  consciousness  reflected  in  the  Compromise. 
Webster  and  Clay,  the  two  greatest  statesmen  of 
the  old  school,  upheld  it  and  thus  revealed  the 
same  dual  character  to  be  their  own. 

In  the  light  of  the  future  we  have  to  think  that 
the  movement  of  History,  the  spirit  of  Civilization, 
or  what  we  have  called  the  World-Spirit,  had 
issued  already  a  different  decree  from  that  of  the 
Compromise  of  1850.  The  clock  of  the  Ages  was 
already  striking  the  deepest  note  of  the  time 
which  proclaimed  that  this  Nation  cannot  con 
tinue  half  slave  and  half  free.  But  the  Folk-Soul 


COMPROMISE  OF  1850.  319 

is  not  yet  ready  to  respond  to  the  behest  of  the 
World-Spirit.  And  Lincoln  whose  chief  function 
is  to  be  the  voice  of  the  coming  era,  is  not  yet 
ready,  has  not  yet  recovered  from  his  Congres 
sional  dissonance.  He  with  his  forty  votes  and 
more  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  accepts  the  Com 
promise  which  totally  ignores  it  and  asserts  essen 
tially  the  dualism  of  the  Nation. 

But  we  are  not  yet  done  with  the  present  act. 
The  extreme  South  was  very  clamorous  for  a 
vigorous  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  got  it  from 
Clay.  The  peculiarity  of  this  provision  was  that 
it  assailed  the  moral  conviction  of  the  North,  and 
brought  up  in  every  human  soul  of  that  section 
the  question:  Shall  I  obey  Conscience  or  this  Law, 
or  even  the  Constitution?  A  whole  people,  of 
whom  a  large  majority  believed  that  slavery  was 
wrong,  were  practically  compelled  to  be  slave- 
catchers  for  Southern  masters.  It  may  be 
affirmed  that  this  part  of  the  Compromise  was  re 
pugnant  to  the  Northern  Folk-Soul,  and  began  to 
make  it  think  of  wiping  out  the  cause  of  such  a 
deep  contradiction  within  itself.  "This  Nation 
cannot  endure  half  slave  and  half  free"  was  the 
doctrine  preached  with  a  mighty  outlay  of  passion 
by  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850.  Thus  the  Com 
promise  helped  undo  itself,  yea  it  intensified  in 
many  a  soul  the  very  malady  which  it  was  pur 
posed  to  cure.  It  rifted  more  deeply  the  already 
deep  dualism  between  North  and  South.  In  the 


320       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Northern  Folk-Soul  it  produced  a  peculiar  in 
tense  scission:  it  set  the  moral  and  institutional 
elements  of  man  to  warring  against  each  other, 
inwardly  and  outwardly .  Still  for  the  time  being 
a  majority  in  the  North,  like  Lincoln,  accepted 
the  Compromise  of  1850  for  its  undoubted  ad 
vantages.  But  the  execution  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Act  often  made  the  best  spirits  quiver 
through  and  through,  as  if  undergoing  a  painful 
surgical  operation,  in  the  grinding  clash  between 
the  two  obediences,  here  to  Conscience  there  to 
Law. 

Douglas  took  an  important  part  in  constructing 
and  passing  the  Compromise  measures  of  1850. 
He  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territories 
and  really  was  the  author  of  the  territorial  part  of 
the  Compromise.  It  should  be  observed  that  he 
voted  repeatedly  during  this  session  for  the  Wil- 
mot  Proviso.  But  he  openly  declared  that  he  did 
this  not  from'his  own  conviction,  but  in  obedience 
to  instructions  from  the  legislature  of  his  State. 
Says  he  during  the  discussion  of  the  Compromise : 
"I  have  always  held  that  the  people  have  a  right 
to  settle  these  questions  as  they  choose  [for  ex 
ample,  slavery],  not  only  when  they  come  into 
the  Union  as  a  State,  but  that  they  should  be  per 
mitted  to  do  so  while  a  Territory."  Here  is  the 
dogma  of  Popular  Sovereignty,  which  is  to  play 
such  an  important  part  hereafter  in  the  careers  of 
Douglas  and  Lincoln. 


PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  OF  1852.        321 

The  old  statesmanship  which  sought  to  keep 
the  Union  double,  but  to  keep  its  clashing  halves 
concordant  by  compromise,  wins  a  triumph  again 
in  1850,  but  the  last  one.  Douglas,  the  transi 
tional  statesman  from  the  old  to  the  new,  helps 
make  it  and  defends  it  when  made,  but  mark  well 
and  look  out  for  his  blow  four  years  hence !  Lin 
coln,  has  settled  down  at  his  Springfield  home  in  a 
political  eclipse  almost  total,  languidly  accepting 
the  double  masterpiece  of  his  antitype  Douglas 
and  of  his  prototype  Clay. 

II. 

Presidential   Election  of  1852. 

While  Lincoln  lay  in  the  deep  shadow  of  his 
Subsidence,  there  came  upon  him  and  upon  the 
country  a  new  election  for  the  Presidency  in 
1852.  On  the  whole  the  agitation  of  the  slavery 
question  had  been  quieted  by  the  Compromise  of 
1850,  though  in  the  North  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
roused  strong  opposition  when  it  was  attempted 
to  be  enforced.  It  kept  stirring  up  the  conscience 
of  the  individual  against  the  law  of  the  land,  and 
many  were  the  efforts  to  harmonize  the  discor 
dant  twain.  Shouts  came  from  both  political 
parties  to  the  soul  writhing  in  the  conflict  of  two 
duties:  Stop  being  agitated!  With  the  blade  en 
tering  the  most  sensitive  part  of  man's  nature, 
there  must  not  be  even  a  wince. 

21 


322        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

The  Democratic  Convention  nominated  Franklin 
Pierce,  a  so-called  dark  horse  from  New  Hamp 
shire,  when  the  old  famous  war-horses — Cass, 
Marcy,  and  Buchanan — could  not  win  the  prize, 
and  the  young  steed,  S.  A.  Douglas,  only  thirty- 
nine  years  old,  but  full  of  mettle,  was  whisked  to 
one  side.  The  unknown  man  again  triumphed 
over  the  well-known  statesmen  of  the  party,  and 
his  record  could  be  no  burden.  The  platform  was 
mainly  a  declaration  of  adherence  to  the  Compro 
mise  of  the  last  Congress,  "the  act  for  reclaiming 
fugitives  from  service  or  labor  included" — which 
act  also  is  irrepealable.  Moreover,  "the  Demo 
cratic  party  will  resist  all  attempts  at  renewing, 
in  Congress  or  out  of  it,  the  agitation  of  the 
slavery  question."  There  is  no  doubt  that  this 
platform  reflected  the  more  quiet  feeling  of  the 
country  at  that  time ;  the  future  condition  of  the 
Territories  was  settled  by  the  two  Compromises  of 
1820  and  1850,  and  most  of  the  anti-slavery 
democrats  deemed  that  they  must  painfully  en 
dure  as  part  of  the  bargain,  the  execution  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  The  characteristic  of  the 
Convention  was  the  inner  harmony  of  the  party 
with  itself  and  with  the  prevailing  tendency  of 
the  whole  people  in  both  sections.  The  Double 
Nation  was  affirmed  again  strongly,  indeed  pas 
sionately,  and  the  Union  was  proclaimed  as  dual  in 
its  very  nature.  The  Democratic  party  now  suc 
ceeded  in  making  itself  the  representative  of  this 


PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  OF  1852.         323 

national  spirit,  and  started  its  campaign  with  an 
outlook  upon  victory. 

The  Whig  Convention  nominated  again  a  hero 
of  the  Mexican  War,  General  Winfield  Scott, 
practicing  the  same  political  stratagem  which  had 
been  so  successful  in  the  cases  of  Taylor  and  also 
of  Harrison.  But  the  circumstances  were  much 
changed.  The  platform  accepted  the  recent  Com 
promise,  and  therein  was  like  the  Democratic; 
also,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  to  be  enforced 
and  the  slavery  agitation  was  deprecated.  Each 
party  thus  had  quite  the  same  principles.  The 
difficulty  lay  in  the  candidate,  Scott,  who  was  sup 
posed  to  have  anti-slavery  leanings  and  to  be  un 
der  the  influence  of  Seward,  who  did  not  accept 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  as  the  political  finality, 
but  favored  its  repeal  or  modification.  The  result 
was  the  Southern  pro-slavery  Whigs  began  to 
bolt  the  ticket ;  probably  the  two  ablest  were  the 
Georgians,  Toombs  and  Stephens,  both  of  whom 
refused  to  support  Scott  on  account  of  his  Free- 
soil  associations.  On  the  other  hand  not  a  few 
Northern  anti-slavery  Whigs  were  estranged  be 
cause  the  platform  had  smothered  the  protest 
against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act.  The  outcome 
was  that  a  third  candidate  appeared  in  the  field, 
Hale  of  New  Hampshire,  on  an  anti-slavery  plat 
form,  which  attracted  many  Whigs  in  the  North. 

Plainly  the  Whig  party  was  going  to  pieces  in 
both  directions,  Northward  and  Southward.  The 


324       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

candidate  and  the  platform  represented  two  oppo 
site  tendencies,  and  could  not  be  welded  together 
by  any  kind  of  political  solder.  The  lurking  dual 
ism  of  the  Nation  showed  itself  in  this  rift  of  the 
Whig  organization.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Act  was 
really  the  wedge  which  shivered  the  old  party. 
The  right  of  Conscience  would  assert  itself  against 
the  Right  of  the  formal  Law,  and  the  great  Com 
promise  itself  was  compromised.  In  comparison 
with  the  Whig  dissolution  very  striking  was  the 
Democratic  unity,  which  could  have  no  scission  be 
tween  candidate  and  platform,  since  Pierce's  person 
ality  had  almost  no  history,  and  counted  for  quite 
nothing  or  anything.  He  vanished  in  the  platform 
which  voiced  harmoniously  the  general  attitude 
of  the  Folk-Soul  at  that  time.  The  result  was  an 
overwhelming  Democratic  victory,  which  showed 
the  People  closing  its  eyes  to  its  own  inner  rend 
ing  dualism,  and  saying  that  this  Nation  must 
continue  to  exist  half  slave  and  half  free.  But 
this  is  just  the  Nation  of  which  the  other  Power, 
called  here  the  World-Spirit,  has  said :  it  shall  not 
so  continue  to  exist.  Which  of  the  two  Powers, 
think  ye,  is  the  mightier? 

Lincoln  was  one  of  the  Whig  electors  for  Illinois, 
and  did  some  canvassing,  though  less  than  usual, 
since  he  confesses  to  a  feeling  of  helplessness  for 
the  cause .  He  certainly  was  not  at  one  with  him 
self,  nor  with  the  people  of  his  State,  upon  whose 
topmost  wave  he  could  behold  his  rival  Douglas 


PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  OF  1852.        325 

swimming  buoyed  with  boundless  hope.  Lincoln 
went  to  pieces  with  his  old  party  in  1852,  and 
sank  down  after  the  election  into  the  darkest 
night  of  his  long  political  obscuration. 

During  this  campaign  of  1852  (July  16th)  he 
delivered  a  eulogy  upon  the  death  of  Henry  Clay, 
recently  deceased .  As  a  whole  it  is  not  a  strong 
performance.  The  peculiarly  striking  thing  about 
it  is  its  omission;  there  is  no  account  of  Clay's 
most  recent  and  perhaps  most  notable  political 
service  in  the  Compromise  of  1850.  Only  one 
faint  allusion  to  it  can  be  detected  in  Lincoln's 
own  words,  and  one  other  allusion  in  a  cited  pas 
sage  from  a  newspaper.  He  spends  most  of  his 
time  upon  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820,  and 
Clay's  view  of  negro  colonization .  The  fact  seems 
to  be  that  Lincoln  was  lukewarm  over  the  Com 
promise  of  1850,  though  he  accepted  it  as  a  dis 
agreeable  necessity. 

In  the  Democratic  campaign  of  1852  Douglas 
was  doubtless  at  his  best.  It  is  said  that  he 
spoke  for  Pierce  "in  twenty-eight  States  out  of 
the  thirty-one."  The  fact  is  that  Douglas  and 
his  leading  theme  were  now  in  accord  with  the 
Folk-Soul.  This  theme  was  that  the  Union 
must  remain  double,  and  must  continue  to  produce 
two  kinds  of  States.  Douglas  had  a  chief  part  in 
framing  the  Compromise  of  1850,  though  it  went 
under  the  great  name  of  Clay.  Lincoln  had  ac 
cepted  that  Compromise,  and  also  the  Whig  plat- 


326       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

form  of  1852  which  re-affirmed  it.  Douglas  had 
in  a  way  absorbed  him,  and  still  he  attempted  to 
speak  against  Douglas  when  there  was  really  no 
political  issue  between  them.  But  the  personal 
issue  remained  between  the  two  antitypes,  and 
this  phase  of  their  long  rivalry  had  its  special 
manifestion,  in  which  we  behold  Lincoln  sallying 
forth  to  the  combat,  as  it  were  without  weapons, 
and  gloriously  defeating  himself.  Douglas  had 
made  a  famous  campaign  speech  at  Richmond, 
Va.,  which  was  published  in  the  newspapers 
throughout  the  country.  Lincoln  replied  to  it  at 
Springfield  before  the  Scott  Club.  It  is  agreed  by 
Lincoln's  warmest  friends  and  biographers  (Lamon 
and  Herndon)  that  the  speech  was  a  fizzle,  yea 
worse,  much  worse  than  a  mere  fizzle. 

It  was  worse  for  it  showed  Lincoln 's  downright 
jealousy  of  his  fortunate  rival.  He  speaks  of  "old 
times  when  Judge  Douglas  was  not  so  much 
greater  man  than  all  the  rest  of  us  as  he  is  now/' 
and  when  "I  used  to  hear  and  try  to  answer  many 
of  his  speeches,"  for  instance  in  the  Harrison  cam 
paign  twelve  years  ago.  So  Lincoln  will  try  now, 
as  this  present  speech  of  Douglas  is  not  "marked 
by  any  greater  ability"  than  the  old  ones,  and  has 
"the  same  species  of  shirks  and  quirks."  Really, 
however,  there  is  no  issue  of  principle  between 
the  rivals.  In  fact  Lincoln  now  directly  indorses 
the  speech  of  Douglas  at  Chicago  in  1850  defend 
ing  the  Compromise  of  that  year.  So  what  can 


PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  OF  1852.         327 

he  say?  He  drops  down  to  buffoonery  and  to 
petty  cavilings  which  open  a  surprising  glimpse 
into  Lincoln's  heart  toward  his  great  competitor. 
It  can  be  said  that  this  speech  may  be  taken  to 
mark  the  deepest  point  of  descent  in  Lincoln's 
Subsidence,  while  Douglas  at  the  same  time 
reaches,  if  not  his  greatest  fame,  at  least  the  most 
fortunate  part  of  his  career  in  a  happy  unity  with 
his  people. 

Perhaps  some  jealousy  may  be  excusable  in  the 
intense  rivalry  between  the  two  competitors.  But 
they  were  not  now  thrown  together  personally, 
and  Lincoln  would  have  shown  the  nobler  char 
acter  by  an  appreciation  of  his  rival's  command 
ing  qualities.  In  this  regard  the  fact  must  now  be 
duly  stated:  Douglas  appreciated  Lincoln  better 
than  Lincoln  appreciated  Douglas.  The  one  in 
justice  of  which  Lincoln  could  be  capable  was  in 
justice  toward  Douglas,  who,  however,  did  not  fail 
upon  occasion  to  recognize  the  worth  of  Lincoln. 
We  hope  and  we  believe  that  Lincoln  renounced 
much  of  his  prejudice  against  Douglas  at  their  last 
interview  in  the  White  House,  when  the  latter  vol 
untarily  went  to  his  life-long  antagonist  after  the 
firing  on  Fort  Sumter,  and  offered  his  great  influ 
ence  and  his  life,  as  it  turned  out,  for  their  now 
common  cause. 

But  if  we  have  now  touched  the  lowest  dip  of 
Lincoln's  sexennial  Subsidence,  and  on  the  other 
side  have  gazed  at  the  highest  dazzling  arc  of 


328       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

Douglas's  fortune,  both  occurring  somewhere 
about  1852,  we  may  next  watch  with  wonder 
ment  the  sudden  shift  of  their  destinies  two  years 
later.  Our  twinned  Dioscuri  of  the  Prairie  have 
begun  to  change  positions;  behold  Lincoln  start 
ing  to  ascend  and  Douglas  to  descend.  Tell 
us,  ye  Powers,  what  prodigious  convulsion,  what 
cosmical  disturbance  produced  such  a  quick  dis 
placement,  or  rather  mutual  reversal  in  the  careers 
of  our  two  Giants,  verily  the  sons  of  Zeus. 

III. 
The   Repeal  of  1854. 

An  oft-cited  statement  of  Lincoln  runs:  "I  was 
losing  interest  in  politics  when  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  roused  me  again."  The  dec 
laration  suggests  his  awakening  from  his  long 
period  of  hibernation,  the  beginning  of  his  rise 
from  his  Subsidence.  In  fact  the  Folk-Soul  itself 
in  the  North  sprang  up  from  its  sleep,  and  with  it 
rose  Lincoln  as  its  leader.  He  was  now  one  with 
it  again  and  soon  took  his  place  in  the  front  line 
of  its  coming  political  battle. 

Moreover  the  cause  of  this  volcanic  upheaval 
was  his  life-long  rival  and  antitype,  Douglas.  Of  a 
sudden  their  situations  in  regard  to  the  people  of 
Illinois  and  of  the  North- West  were  changed. 
Douglas  had  hitherto  been  the  favorite  of  fortune, 
the  popular  darling ;  Lincoln  had  been  out  of  ac- 


THE  REPEAL  OF  1854.  329 

cord  with  the  Folk-Soul,  and  politically  submerged. 
All  at  once  by  his  own  act  Douglas  was  over 
whelmed  with  an  Oceanic  wave  of  unpopularity, 
and  the  first  man  to  meet  him  in  serious  contest 
on  the  soil  of  their  common  State  was  Lincoln, 
voicing  the  outraged  Folk-Soul  in  its  wrath  at  the 
abrogation  of  the  time-honored  Missouri  Compro 
mise.  If  Lincoln  for  his  Congressional  conduct 
during  the  Mexican  War  had  sunk  out  of  sight 
under  the  People's  disapproval,  Douglas  had  now 
to  meet  a  popular  maelstrom  agitated  from  its 
depths  by  passion. 

Through  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820, 
slavery  had  been  prohibited  by  Congress  north  of 
the  latitudinal  line  of  36  degrees  and  30  minutes. 
The  territory  then  vaguely  called  Nebraska,  was 
thus  devoted  to  the  making  of  Free  States,  and 
was  ten  times  larger  than  New  York.  It  was  evi 
dent  that  equality  in  number  between  the  North 
ern  and  Southern  States  was  seriously  threatened, 
and  the  South  was  chafing  a  good  deal  under  the 
outlook.  A  new  North  was  about  to  arise  west 
of  the  Mississippi,  equal  in  area  and  population 
to  the  already  existent  North,  which  was  getting 
restive  under  the  South's  control,  and  had  shown  a 
decided  hostility  to  slavery.  The  trend  of  migra 
tion  had  always  been  toward  these  new  Free- 
States  of  the  North- West.  The  coming  political 
problem  of  the  Southern  leaders  presented  itself 
thus:  How  can  we  wrench  at  least  a  part  of  this 


330       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

territory  from  freedom  to  slavery?  The  Missouri 
Compromise  stood  in  the  way,  and  it  must  be 
somehow  circumvented  or  eliminated. 

The  man  who  undertook  to  remove  this  obstacle 
was  a  Northerner,  a  born  New-Englander,  but 
Senator  from  Illinois.  Douglas  prepared  the  bill, 
and  it  was  chiefly  through  his  energy  and  stra 
tegic  ability  that  it  went  through  both  Houses  of 
Congress  and  became  the  law  of  the  land.  Every 
body  then  asked,  and  the  reader  still  asks,  What 
was  the  motive  of  Douglas?  He  claimed  that  the 
Missouri  Compromise  had  been  already  repealed  by 
the  Compromise  of  1850  in  the  clause  pertaining 
to  New  Mexico  and  Utah — which  statement  could 
hardly  be  verified  as  a  fact.  He  said  he  wished  to 
banish  the  slavery  agitation  from  national  politics ; 
but  his  act  certainly  brought  about  the  oppo 
site.  Still  he  maintained  that  his  object  was  to 
establish  a  great  principle,  which  he  called  Popular 
Sovereignty.  Really,  however,  his  doctrine  was  a 
blow  at  the  Union  as  State-producing;  Congress 
was  denied  the  power  of  training  its  own  territorial 
children  for  Statehood;  especially  was  it  prohibited 
from  acting  on  the  main  point  whether  the  new 
States  shall  be  free  or  slave.  Thus  the  Popular 
Sovereignty  of  Douglas  was  a  relapse  to  a  kind  of 
political  chaos,  and  was  a  denial  of  the  essential 
character  of  our  government  as  the  State-produc 
ing  State.  So  Douglas  proclaimed  the  non-inter 
ference  of  Congress  in  the  very  matter  in  which 


THE  REPEAL  OF  1854.  331 

it  ought  chiefly  to  interfere,  if  it  be  truly  a  Con 
gress  of  the  United-States. 

But  the  deepest  underlying  motive  of  Douglas 
remains  to  be  probed.  He  had  his  heart  set  upon 
the  Presidency.  He  could  not  get  the  nomination 
without  the  help  of  the  South.  But  the  Southern 
leaders  always  suspected  him,  as  has  been  already 
indicated;  not  a  few  actions  and  statements  of  his 
had  been  ambiguous ;  they  knew  that  he  was  ang 
ling  for  their  support,  yet  was  a  man  of  too  great 
independence  to  be  plastic  in  their  hands.  In 
1852  he  received  only  two  votes  from  the  South 
in  the  nominating  Convention.  Hence  it  was  be 
lieved  at  the  time,  and  has  been  believed  ever 
since  that  the  leading  motive  of  Douglas  in  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  to  win 
Southern  support  for  his  Presidential  aspirations. 

As  we  look  back  at  the  Repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  through  a  vista  of  more  than  fifty 
years,  we  can  see  that  it  has  had  results  far  be 
yond  the  mental  range  of  its  author,  of  its  sup 
porters,  and  of  its  enemies.  Really  it  assailed 
and  tore  down  the  recognized  wall  of  separation 
which  had  been  set  up  between  the  Slave-States 
and  the  Free-States  that  were  to  be  born  there 
after.  The  enactment  which  chiefly  settled  the 
new  Nation  as  double,  is  repealed,  and  with  it  be 
gins  the  movement  toward  the  complete  oblitera 
tion  of  the  national  dualism.  In  about  ten  years' 
time  the  work  is  done.  The  Repeal  of  the  Mis- 


332        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

souri  Compromise  declares  negatively  that  the 
Union  cannot  remain  double — cannot  continue 
half  slave  and  half  free.  Positively  we  may  also 
read  in  it,  glancing  backward  by  the  light  of  His 
tory,  that  the  Union  must  henceforth  be  Free- 
State  producing,  for  the  agreement  which  practi 
cally  made  it  bring  forth  a  black  and  a  white 
twin  is  cancelled. 

It  is  true  that  no  such  purpose  lay  directly  in 
the  mind  of  Douglas,  though  at  times  he  seems  to 
have  faintly  glimpsed  such  consequences  lurking 
in  his  act.  Nor  did  the  people,  Northern  or 
Southern,  see  this  deepest  trend  of  the  Repeal, 
nor  did  Lincoln  at  first.  But  its  world-historical 
purpose  all  can  now  discern.  The  North  nearly 
unanimously  opposed  it,  poured  out  unmeasured 
obloquy  upon  its  author,  and  even  burned  him  in 
effigy.  And  yet  it  was  the  very  means  by  which 
the  North  passed  into  the  South  and  assimilated 
the  same  to  its  own  freedom.  To  do  this  was  the 
training  of  the  North  in  the  Kansas  conflict.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  South  favored  the  bill  and 
gave  to  it  its  chief  support  in  Congress.  The 
Southern  statesmen  did  not  see  that  they  were 
throwing  down  their  protecting  bulwark  against 
the  already  stronger  North  and  ever  growing 
stronger.  Before  the  Repeal  the  Southerners 
fought  behind  battlements,  but  after  it  they  had 
to  come  out  and  fight  against  superior  numbers 
in  the  open  prairie.  And  this  was  done  by  their 


THE  REPEAL  OF  1854.  333 

own  deed,  seemingly  in  a  kind  of  defiance.  Never 
did  the  irony  of  History  mask  itself  so  elusively 
to  both  sides.  The  North  was  angered  at  their 
greatest  blessing,  the  South  was  rejoiced  at  their 
greatest  curse.  The  one  execrated  their  benefac 
tor,  Douglas,  the  other  hymned  praises  to  their 
destroyer,  Douglas.  And  this  Douglas  seemed 
quite  unconscious  of  the  ultimate  trend  of  his 
deed.  Unwitting  instruments  of  the  World-Spirit 
they  all  now  seem,  bringing  forth  the  new  homo 
geneous  Union  in  the  place  of  the  old  double  na 
tionality. 

Was  there  any  man  on  either  side  who  possibly 
felt  some  faint  intimation  of  the  far-off  result? 
The  old  Texan  hero,  Sam  Houston,  was  the  only 
Southern  Democratic  Senator  who  voted  against 
the  Repeal  in  the  interest  of  the  South,  declaring 
with  a  gleam  of  prophetic  forecast:  "It  is  the 
worst  thing  for  the  South  that  has  ever  transpired 
since  the  Union  was  formed."  But  he  stood 
almost,  though  not  quite,  alone  in  his  Section. 
Houston  saw  in  the  bill  its  undoubted  negative 
element  against  slavery.  And  on  the  other  hand 
did  any  Northern  statesman  catch  the  secret  hand 
writing  of  destiny  in  the  Repeal?  Several  of 
them,  according  to  reports  which  are  later.  Chase, 
hearing  the  boom  of  cannon  celebrating  the  victory 
of  Douglas,  is  recorded  by  his  biographer  as  ex 
claiming  on  the  steps  of  the  Capital  when  going 
home  in  the  morning  from  the  final  vote:  "They 


334        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

celebrate  a  present  victory,  but  the  echoes  they 
awake  will  never  rest  until  slavery  itself  shall 
die."  So  this  is  the  beginning  of  the  end  accord 
ing  to  Chase,  who  had  shown  himself  the  most  de 
termined  and  ablest  Senatorial  opponent  of  the 
Repeal.  But  if  he  saw  in  it  the  death  of  slavery, 
why  did  he  not  support  it,  abolitionist  that  he 
was?  Caught  in  the  ironical  sport  of  the  World- 
Spirit  which  makes  him  do  the  opposite  of  what 
he  is  and  sees,  unto  its  end,  and  not  his  own.  An 
exultant  prophecy  is  also  reported  from  the  lips  of 
Sumner:  This  bill  "annuls  all  past  compromises 
with  slavery  and  makes  all  future  compromises 
impossible.  Thus  it  puts  freedom  and  slavery 
face  to  face  and  bids  them  grapple.  Who  can 
doubt  the  result?"  Certainly  not  Sumner;  still 
he  touched  off  all  his  superb  rhetorical  fireworks 
against  the  measure,  trying  somehow  to  scare  or 
bedazzle  the  World-Spirit  whose  working  he  sees 
and  strikingly  describes  in  the  foregoing  citation. 
He  calls  it  "the  worst  bill"  in  its  immediate  re 
sults,  but  in  the  long  run  "the  best  bill  on  which 
Congress  ever  acted."  Why  not  support  it  then? 
But  he  speaks  and  votes  against  "the  best  bill" 
for  the  anti-slavery  cause,  thus  dashing  water  on 
his  own  brilliant  pyrotechnic  display,  or  rather 
showing  that  it  is  at  last  a  mere  display  of  his 
own  virtuosity.  But  let  the  reader  not  forget 
Sumner's  words  above  quoted :  they  announce  very 
impressively  the  coming  historic  fact.  Seward 


THE  REPEAL  OF  1854.  335 

likewise    made  a  speech,  which  has  a  significance 
in  the  same  direction.     His  was  the  keenest  mind 
of  the  great  oratorical  trio  of  anti-slaveryism  in 
the  Senate,  and  he  could  not  help  indulging  in  an 
undertone  of  exultation   that   slavery    had  now 
started  to  undo    itself  through  its    own  friends. 
Seemingly  that  subtle  spirit  of  his  was  not  averse 
to  seeing  the  bill  pass,  especially  in  the  way  it  did 
pass.    One  thinks,  too,  that  his  speech,  which  is 
not  a  very  strong  one  for  him,  was  hamstrung  by 
his  insight  into  the  irony  of  the  situation  on  both 
sides,  at  which  he  cannot  help  having  a  furtive 
chuckle,  of  course   quite  inaudible  to  the  party 
which  he  was  supporting.    But  later  he  gave  him 
self  credit  for  a  still  deeper  subtlety.    What  shall 
we  say    to   this  claim  of    Seward    recorded    by 
Montgomery  Blair  whom  he  told  that  "he  was  the 
man  who  put   Archy  Dixon,  the  Whig    Senator 
from  Kentucky  in    1854,   up  to  moving  the  Re 
peal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  as  an  amendment 
to  Douglas's  first  Kansas  bill,"  which  had  no  such 
Repeal  in  it,  and  that  "he  had  himself  forced  the 
Repeal  by  that  movement  and  had  thus  brought 
to  life  the  Republican  party."    So  Seward  claims 
to  have  been  the  Zeus  supreme  over  both  sides, 
and  to  have  pulled  the  Olympian  strings  which 
brought  about  their  clash,  to  the  final  utter  un 
doing  of  the  South.     And  Seward  makes   himself 
a  kind  of  Homer  and  sings  a  little  Iliad  for  his 
own  heroship  or  rather  godship — a  colossal  proph- 


336       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

ecy  in  retrospect,  we  cannot  help  thinking.  Still 
there  is  no  doubt  that  Seward  had  at  the  time 
a  keener  perception  of  the  inner  self-contradictory 
dialectic  of  both  parties  in  this  measure  than  any 
other  statesman  at  Washington  on  either  side. 
Really  just  in  that  subtlety  lay  his  unique  talent, 
to  which  he  became  at  times  the  victim.  So  it 
befell  perhaps  that  he  could  afterwards  portray 
himself  taking  the  place  of  the  supereminent 
World-Spirit  and  directing  the  whole  business 
with  a  providential  design  beforehand,  not  only 
to  the  destruction  but  to  the  self-destruction  of 
slavery. 

In  the  movement  of  present  biography,  ac 
cordingly,  the  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 
brings  about  a  new  Epoch,  causing  the  emergence 
of  Lincoln  from  his  long  discipline  of  political  Sub 
sidence.  He  had  felt  himself  remanded  to  pri 
vate  life  and  personal  obscurity.  But  at  present 
he  rises  with  the  mighty  upheaval  of  the  Folk- 
Soul,  and  is  soon  its  chosen  voice,  yea,  its  leading 
organizer  into  a  new  party.  Now  he  becomes 
truly  gigantic  in  fact  as  well  as  in  form,  having 
gotten  a  cause  in  which  he  can  fully  exert  his  new 
power  won  through  his  long  inner  discipline.  The 
feeling  of  jealousy  toward  his  rival  may  not  be 
wholly  extinguished,  but  it  can  be  transformed 
into  a  noble  indignation  against  that  rival's  wrong 
ful  deed. 


ARISE,  OR  BE  FOREVER  FALLEN.         337 

IV. 

Arise,  or  Be  Forever  Fallen. 

Not  the  Devil  was  it  now,  calling  to  his  lost 
souls  that  lay  prostrate  on  the  burning  lake  (as 
Milton  tells  us),  but  the  good  Genius  of  Lincoln 
himself  it  was,  who,  reinforced  indeed  by  the 
mighty  voice  of  the  World-Spirit,  thus  spoke  to 
him,  bidding  him  wake  up  and  arise  from  his  long 
lethargic  sexennium.  Lethargic  externally  he 
seemed  in  his  silent  breedings,  but  internally  very 
active  he;  yea,  creative  and  re-creative  of  himself. 
Such  we  hold  to  be  his  spiritual  training  in  the 
silent  Netherworld  through  which  he  has  now 
passed,  getting  rid  of  his  dualism,  of  his  political 
sin,  analogous  to  that  religious  sin,  the  stages  of 
which  Dante  has  described  as  his  own  in  his  pur 
gatorial  journey.  But,  alas !  Lincoln  has  left  us 
no  description  of  his  spiritual  itinerary  through 
what  we  have  called  his  Subsidence;  hardly  more 
do  we  see  of  him  than  a  plunge  downward,  head 
foremost,  as  it  were,  in  biting  discord  with  himself; 
then  the  long,  long  stay  underneath,  quite  out  of 
sight  internally,  till  his  friends  thought  him  lost 
as  a  public  man  But  now  we  again  see  him 
cleaving  his  darkness  and  standing  up  glorified,  as 
he  starts  out  a  new  man  on  his  new  career,  with 
that  voice  (we  may  suppose),  ringing  in  his  ears: 
"Arise,  or  be  forever  fallen."  He  has  indeed 
heard  it,  for  he  is  ready  to  hear  it,  having  had 

22 


338        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

his  long  inner  probation  to  that  end;  moreover, 
the  time,  too,  is  ready  and  is  calling  for  him  and 
his  like  to  begin  the  new  era  in  the  Nation. 

Repeatedly  have  we  announced  the  fact  that 
Lincoln,  after  having  taken  the  discipline  of  his 
sunken  sexennium,  is  to  rise  from  his  long  Subsi 
dence,  rise  with  the  Folk-Soul  and  become  its 
leader  and  mouthpiece.  Quite  sudden  was  this 
emergence,  as  the  occasion  of  it  came  so  unex 
pected.  Lincoln  has  left  a  vigorous  description  of 
the  fact  in  a  speech  delivered  in  1854,  a  few 
months  after  the  Repeal.  Says  he  in  reply  to 
some  complaints  of  Douglas:  "He  should  remem 
ber  that  he  took  us  by  surprise,  astounded  us,  by 
this  measure.  We  were  thunderstruck  and  stunned ; 
and  we  reeled  and  fell  in  utter  confusion.  But  we 
rose,  each  fighting,  grasping  whatever  we  could 
first  reach,  a  scythe,  a  pitchfork,  a  chopping  axe, 
or  butcher's  cleaver.  We  struck  in  the  direction 
of  the  sound,  and  we  are  rapidly  closing  in  upon 
him.  He  must  not  think  to  divert  us  from  our 
purpose  by  showing  that  our  drill,  our  dress,  and 
our  weapons  are  not  entirely  perfect  and  uniform." 

Thus  Lincoln  in  a  striking  image  portrays  the 
maddened  Folk-Soul,  headed  by  himself  on  the 
hunt  after  the  arch  repealer  of  the  hallowed  Com 
promise  of  1820,  as  soon  as  the  latter  touched  the 
soil  of  Illinois.  The  population  was  chiefly  agri 
cultural,  and  hence  the  angry  farmer  seized  his 
nearest  implement,  with  which  he  was  at  work  in 


ARISE,  OR  BE  FOREVER  FALLEN.    339 

the  fields,  "a  scythe,  a  pitchfork,  a  chopping  axe," 
and  made  a  rush  at  the  public  man  whom  he 
deemed  his  betrayer.  For  that  Folk-Soul,  living 
in  a  Free-State,  believed  in  the  same  as  its  own 
very  essence,  and  moreover,  believed  that  the 
Union  should  be  Free-State  producing.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  Lincoln  gives  a  truthful  picture  of 
the  indignation  at  Douglas  in  his  own  State  and 
throughout  the  North.  When  the  Senator  reaches 
home  from  Congress  he  hears  on  all  sides  of  him  a 
far-echoing  multitudinous  shout  of  wrath:  here  he 
comes,  the  recreant !  up  and  at  him  "with  scythe, 
pitchfork  or  chopping  axe."  Certainly  a  disor 
ganized  shouting  mass  of  ire  it  is  now,  but  it  will 
soon  get  organized  into  a  party,  for  it  is  acting 
under  a  common  principle  in  the  form  of  impulse 
which  declares  that  no  more  Slave-States  shall  be 
made  out  of  the  territories,  that  this  Federal  Union 
shall  hereafter  produce  Free-States  only. 

In  the  interest  of  this  biography  we  are  now  to 
follow  Lincoln  emerging  from  his  eclipse  and  grad 
ually  becoming  the  leader  of  the  new  principle  and 
its  party.  The  decree  of  the  World-Spirit  we  may 
well  deem  it,  for  it  is  to  make  itself  supremely 
valid  in  the  coming  years.  Lincoln  hears  this  de 
cree  and  voices  it  to  the  people,  who  are  indeed 
ready,  yea,  are  demanding  it  and  calling  for  a 
leader.  At  the  call  we  may  behold  stepping  forth 
out  of  the  shadow  of  his  previous  years  and  be 
ginning  his  new  career,  the  form  of  Abraham  Lin- 


340       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

coin,  whose  first  task  is  an  herculean  contest  with 
his  old  antagonist,  Douglas. 

Already  before  the  arrival  of  Douglas,  it  seems, 
Lincoln  had  started  campaigning  for  his  friend 
Richard  Yates  who  was  running  for  Congress,  and 
had  made  strong  anti-Nebraska  speeches,  which 
had  surprised  people  by  their  earnestness.  When 
Douglas  came  into  the  State,  he  had  his  first  ex 
perience  with  an  angry  constituency  at  Chicago, 
where  he  was  hooted  from  the  platform.  That 
was  in  Northern  Illinois,  strongly  anti-slavery  and 
bitterly  anti-Nebraska.  He  soon  betook  himself 
to  Springfield,  his  old  home,  where  he  spoke  at 
the  State  fair,  which  had  drawn  a  vast  concourse 
of  people.  On  the  next  day,  October  4,  1854, 
Lincoln  answered  him  in  a  speech  which  has  not 
been  preserved.  But  the  two  contestants  now 
step  forth  into  the  arena,  and  fight  their  first 
pitched  battle  on  the  new  issue,  which  is  destined 
to  have  a  great  history.  Significant  is  it  that 
Lincoln  now  follows  Douglas  about  from  place  to 
place  in  order  to  reply  to  him  before  the  people. 
The  sunken  man  has  risen  to  the  surface  once 
more  and  is  selected  for  the  coming  task,  energet 
ically  pursuing  and  challenging  to  combat  his 
strong  adversary.  On  October  16th  they  meet 
again  in  an  oratorical  duel,  this  time  at  Peoria, 
Lincoln  making  a  speech  which  he  wrote  out  for 
publication,  and  which  must  be  regarded  as  an 


ARISE,  OR  BE  FOREVER  FALLEN.          341 

authentic  statement  of  his  views  at  this  time 
(Lincoln's  Works,  L,  p.  180-209). 

Now  this  Peoria  speech  has  a  very  important 
biographical  interest  as  being  the  first  recorded 
utterance  of  the  new  Lincoln  after  or  even  during 
his  emergence.  For  when  he  made  it,  he  was  not 
yet  fully  emerged,  and  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill 
had  been  passed  by  Congress  only  a  few  months 
before.  All  was  yet  in  a  seething,  fermenting 
stage;  Lincoln  himself  was  more  or  less  in  that 
condition ;  he  had  yet  to  evolve  somewhat,  as  well 
as  the  whole  country.  Still  he  has  certain  dis 
tinct  lines  of  thought  which  he  has  well  elabo 
rated,  and  is  full  of  the  history  of  the  subject  and 
its  lesson. 

His  main  proposition  is  that  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  ought  to  be  restored.  For  the  sake  of  the 
Union  it  ought  to  be  restored.  We  ought  to  elect 
a  House  of  Representatives  which  will  vote  for  its 
restoration.  Very  little  prospect  of  such  a  retrac 
tion  there  was,  since  the  Senate  could  not  be 
changed  for  years.  The  chief  reason  for  the  re 
peal  of  this  repeal  was  that  otherwise  "we  shall 
have  repudiated — discarded  from  the  councils  of 
the  Nation  — the  spirit  of  compromise;  for  who 
after  this,  will  ever  trust  in  a  national  compromise? 
That  spirit  of  mutual  concession — that  spirit  which 
first  gave  us  the  Constitution,  and  has  thrice  saved 
the  Union — we  shall  have  cast  from  us  forever." 
Lincoln  does  not  apparently  see  that  the  day  of  com- 


342       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

promises  with  slavery  is  past,  ended  by  the  act  of 
slavery  itself,  and  that  the  direct  struggle  between 
the  two  sides  is  at  hand.  Lincoln  has  not  yet 
quite  reached  the  insight  that  this  Nation  cannot 
exist  half-slave  half-free,  but  he  will  soon  reach  it 
and  say  it.  The  abolition  of  that  Missouri  Com 
promise  means  to  the  eye  of  the  World-spirit,  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  but  hardly  yet  to  the  eye  of 
Lincoln.  He  is  still  too  much  enmeshed  in  the 
old  order  of  statesmanship  headed  by  Webster 
and  Clay,  good  for  its  time  no  doubt,  but  now 
transcended  forever.  No  more  compromises,  cries 
the  South  and  therein  starts  undoing  itself,  which 
is  just  at  present  the  supreme  decree.  Idyllic  Lin 
coln  repeats  prayerfully  in  this  speech:  "Restore 
the  Compromise  and  what  then?  We  thereby  re 
store  the  national  faith,  the  national  confidence,  the 
national  feeling  of  brotherhood."  Alack-a-day !  no 
such  paradisaical  happiness  is  ever  again  possible 
to  this  Nation  till  the  deep-seated  source  itself  of 
all  Compromise  be  reached  and  cleaned  out  for 
ever.  And  of  that  painful  cleansing  Lincoln  is 
destined  to  be  the  leader. 

So  our  speech-maker  at  Peoria  on  that  October 
day  proposes  still  to  keep  the  dual  Union,  cause 
of  never-ending  inner  conflict  and  turmoil,  to  keep 
it  by  compromise,  as  it  has  so  long  been  kept.  As 
well  might  the  children  of  Adam  seek  to  return 
to  Eden,  from  which  they  have  been  ex 
pelled.  Lincoln  shows  his  hatred  of  slavery  in 


ARISE,  OR  BE  FOREVER  FALLEN.         343 

this  speech,  and  pricks  many  a  sophistical  bubble 
cleverly  blown  by  Douglas  for  vindicating  himself 
before  the  people.  Evidence  of  historic  study,  as 
well  as  a  deep  moral  earnestness  one  finds  in  the 
well-considered  argument,  which  has  also  keen 
logical  thrusts  along  with  bright  metaphorical 
sallies.  But  there  is  a  total  absence  of  story-tell 
ing,  of  grotesque  humor,  of  the  funning  and  fab 
ling,  which  were  so  prominent  once  and  will  be 
again.  What  has  thus  sobered  him?  We  can  only 
conjecture  that  his  inner  wrestle  has  been  so  in 
tense  that  it  has  for  a  time  overlaid  that  strain  of 
his  character. 

Still  in  the  tone  of  the  speech  there  is  heralded 
a  young  hope,  which  elevates  and  illumines  its 
seriousness.  Upon  Lincoln  has  dawned  a  bright 
auroral  promise  of  a  new  career  at  the  age  of 
forty-five  years,  in  the  very  flowering  of  his  highest 
talent.  And  a  cause  has  been  given  him  into 
whose  advocacy  he  can  pour  forth  the  deepest 
conviction  both  of  his  moral  and  institutional 
nature.  And  let  it  not  be  forgotten !  that  adver 
sary  and  antitype  of  his,  so  long  triumphant  over 
him,  he  can  now  clutch  with  the  grip  of  Ophiu- 
chus  and  hale  the  violator  of  what  he  deems  the 
right  before  the  judgment-seat  of  the  Folk-Soul, 
yea  of  the  Ages. 


344       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—PART  SECOND. 

V. 

Lincoln  and  Douglas  (4). 

Lincoln,  as  we  have  shown,  has  gone  back  to  the 
Folk-Soul  of  his  State,  and  indeed  of  his  Section, 
for  a  fresh  dip  in  the  original  protoplasm  of  the 
People,  out  of  which  the  Great  Man  of  the  time  is 
to  be  formed,  or  perchance  to  be  re-formed,  if  he 
have  suffered  some  obscuration,  or  some  estrange 
ment  from  this  fountain-head  of  his  institutional 
being.  There  Lincoln  slowly  gets  a  new  adjust 
ment,  traveling  the  circuit  as  a  lawyer  and  mingling 
with  his  legal  associates  as  well  as  with  the  plain 
folk,  with  whom  again  he  comes  into  harmony. 
Upon  him  and  them  a  fresh  conviction  is  dawning 
with  the  movement  of  the  time,  verily  the  impress 
of  the  Age's  purpose,  the  stamp  of  the  World- 
Spirit  taking  an  advanced  stride  toward  its  histor 
ical  goal.  So  we  conceive  Lincoln  performing  his 
fameless  service  to  the  presiding  Powers  over  his 
and  his  Nation's  destiny. 

Meanwhile  his  rival  and  counterpart  Douglas  is 
swimming  triumphant  on  the  topmost  wave  of 
fame  and  political  influence.  At  the  same  time 
we  must  note  the  drawback:  there  at  Washington 
he  is  losing  touch  with  the  Folk-Soul  of  his  State 
and  Section — losing  that  which  Lincoln  is  gaining. 
This  is  the  undercurrent  or  rather  countercurrent 
in  the  mighty  onflowing  stream  of  Douglas's  pop 
ularity,  certain  to  rise  to  the  surface  with  the 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (4)  345 

years.  The  atmosphere  of  the  Capital  was  very 
different  from  that  of  the  North- West;  the  polit 
ical  influence  of  the  South  dominated  at  Washing 
ton  and  also  the  social,  both  of  which  deeply 
transformed  the  ambitious  and  susceptible  Sen 
ator.  His  marriage  with  a  Southern  lady  of 
wealth  and  position  had  a  tendency  to  make  him 
more  formal  and  even  aristocratic.  Then  there 
was  the  spatial  separation  between  him  and  his 
constituency,  to  which  he  returned  again  and 
again  to  give  an  account  of  himself,  but  which 
showed  a  dissonance  always  increasing.  We  be 
lieve  that  the  reason  why  Douglas  lost  hold  of  his 
People  lay  chiefly  in  the  legislative  body  of  which 
he  was  a  member,  indeed  the  most  prominent  and 
forceful  member.  The  Senate  is  farther  removed 
from  the  throbbings  and  aspirations  of  the  Folk- 
Soul  than  any  other  branch  of  the  Government. 
Indeed  its  organization  is  the  antithesis  of  a  pop 
ular  institution,  and  its  spirit  has  often  shown 
itself  not  only  indifferent  but  antagonistic  to  the 
People.  As  a  body  essentially  aristocratic,  it  was 
the  great  entrenched  fortress  of  the  South,  and  re 
mained  quite  inexpugnable  by  the  rising  con 
science  of  the  North  till  the  Southern  Senators 
ran  off  and  left  it  in  1861.  Now  of  this  govern 
mental  body  Douglas  became  more  and  more  the 
ruling  mind  and  the  real  incarnation,  though  of 
course  with  strong  and  jealous  opposition  from 
both  North  and  South.  But  taking  him  all  in  all, 


346       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

he  was  the  greatest  Senator  the  country  ever  pro 
duced,  greater  than  Webster  though  not  so  impos 
ing  in  stature  or  so  classic  in  speech,  greater  than 
Clay  or  Calhoun,  and  since  his  time  we  have  not 
looked  upon  his  like  again  in  the  Senate.  Still  on 
the  other  hand  just  here  lay  his  limit,  and  his 
very  excellence  became  his  bane;  his  supreme  Sen 
atorial  fitness  unfitted  him  for  the  Presidency,  and 
his  chief  legislative  deed  undid  him  for  chief  Ex 
ecutive.  Lincoln  wanted  to  be  Senator,  but  the 
Powers  forbade  him  decidedly,  forbade  him  twice, 
no  doubt  in  the  interest  of  himself  and  his  Nation. 
The  Senate  might  have  ruined  him,  producing  a 
second  and  deeper  alienation  from  the  Folk-Soul 
than  did  the  House  of  Representatives,  which  laid 
him  on  the  shelf  for  so  many  years.  The  great 
Presidents  have  on  the  whole  come  directly  from 
the  People,  not  through  the  Senate  or  Judiciary, 
which  are  so  different  in  function  from  the  Pres 
idency.  The  Senate  through  its  constitution  is 
quite  inclined  to  streaks  of  domination,  if  not  of 
usurpation,  to  arbitrary  and  irresponsible  conduct, 
to  jealousy  of  the  other  governmental  powers,  and 
to  defiance  of  public  opinion.  Corresponding  to 
these  drawbacks  undoubtedly  are  found  important 
virtues.  Long  tenure  of  office,  the  small  and  se 
lect  number  participating  in  the  honor,  and  espe 
cially  an  election  removed  from  the  People  have 
the  effect  of  separating  the  Senator  from  the  Folk- 
Soul.  It  was,  therefore,  not  at  all  the  place  for 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (4).  347 

Lincoln,  whose  supreme  function  was  both  to  feel 
and  to  sway  the  popular  heart  directly  in  the  ap 
proaching  crisis  of  the  Nation.  Douglas,  there 
fore,  through  his  long  Washington  experience  had 
gradually  lost  his  intimate  connection  with  his 
People,  and  had  violated  their  deepest  political 
instinct,  which  was  to  have  a  Nation  productive 
of  Free-States  only.  On  the  other  hand  Lincoln 
is  completely  harmonious  with  that  instinct,  now 
that  the  disagreement  caused  by  the  Mexican  War 
is  a  thing  of  the  past. 

On  two  memorable  occasions  Douglas  returned, 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  an  account  of  his  stew 
ardship,  to  his  angry  constituency.  The  first  was 
when  he  defended  his  work  in  the  Compromise  of 
1850.  The  Common  Council  of  Chicago  had 
passed  a  string  of  violent  resolutions,  one  of  which 
practically  declared  for  the  nullification  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  even  of  the  Constitution, 
chiefly  on  the  ground  that  "the  laws  of  God 
should  be  held  paramount  to  all  human  compacts 
and  statutes."  The  whole  affair  was  preposter 
ous,  indeed  a  downright  comedy,  whose  theme 
was  in  substance,  "The  Common  Council  of  Chi 
cago  as  the  expositor  and  defender  of  the  Laws  of 
God."  The  very  statement  ought  to  have  pro 
duced  a  horse-laugh  even  in  that  furious  multi 
tude,  and  sent  them  all  home  in  a  fit  of  merri 
ment.  Douglas  met  them,  answered  their  ques 
tions,  cowed  them  with  his  leonine  aggressiveness, 


348       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

and  actually  drove  them  to  adopt  a  set  of  resolu 
tions  offered  by  himself  and  friendly  to  the  Com 
promise,  "without  a  dissenting  voice."  And  the 
Common  Council  the  next  evening  "by  a  vote  of 
12  to  1"  repealed  its  act  of  nullification  in  favor 
of  "the  Laws  of  God,"  evidently  quitting  theology 
for  the  more  congenial  field  of  ward  politics. 

It  was  an  easy,  but  great  and  overwhelming 
victory  for  Douglas.  And  there  is  no  doubt  that 
he  voiced  the  feeling  of  the  people  in  regard  to 
the  Compromise  of  1850,  much  as  they  disliked  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  Moreover,  they  had  no  real 
leader;  Lincoln  was  in  his  Subsidence  down  at 
Springfield,  and  he  would  have  agreed  with 
Douglas  in  the  main  points,  though  with  very 
different  sympathies.  That  Chicago  crowd  was  a 
foolish,  disorganized,  headless  mass,  which  nullified 
itself  completely  in  the  hands  of  Douglas.  Still 
there  was  something  in  it  of  which  he  might  well 
take  heed.  That  Law  of  God,  or  Law  of  Con 
science,  in  its  conflict  with  the  Constitution  was 
striking  deep  roots  in  the  Folk-Soul,  as  he  might 
infer,  even  from  the  comic  interlude  of  the  City 
Council.  In  fact,  he  was  led  into  a  kind  of  theo 
logical  disquisition  himself  by  the  following  ques 
tion:  "A  gentleman  here  rose  and  inquired  of  Mr. 
Douglas  whether  the  clause  in  the  Constitution 
providing  for  the  surrender  of  fugitive  slaves  was 
not  in  violation  of  the  law  of  God?"  Douglas,  re 
plying  shiftily,  plunges  into  a  metaphysical  disser- 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (4).  349 

tation  on  divine  and  human  law,  which  that  crowd 
certainly  did  not  understand,  and  he  probably  did 
not  understand  it  himself.  For  he,  seemingly 
without  knowing  it,  gives  away  his  whole  position. 
He  declares  "that  there  is  a  law  paramount  to  all 
human  enactments,"  and  that  this  law,  "the  law 
of  God,  is  intended  to  operate  on  our  consciences, 
and  to  insure  the  performance  of  our  duties  as 
individuals  and  Christians."  Seward  with  his 
Higher  Law,  never  did  and  never  could  ask  for 
more.  Douglas  goes  on  to  state  "that  the  divine 
Law  does  not  prescribe  the  form  of  government 
under  which  we  live/'  and  so  forth — all  of  which 
does  not  help  out,  but  tends  "to  ink  the  waters 
like  a  cuttle-fish."  But  let  us  drop  this  matter 
here  with  the  observation  that  Douglas,  so  bril 
liantly  successful  in  nullifying  the  nullification  of 
the  Chicago  Common  Council,  is  not  at  home  in 
discussing  or  even  in  understanding  the  grand 
conflict  between  Conscience  and  the  Constitution, 
which  is  rising  with  such  might  in  the  Northern 
Folk-Soul,  and  of  which  this  Chicago  mob  was  a 
real,  but  a  wild,  ugly,  grotesque  manifestation. 
The  deep  moral  questioning  of  the  time  lay  out 
side  of  his  horizon. 

Through  his  unparalleled,  and  we  think,  deserved 
success  upon  this  occasion,  Douglas  would  believe 
that  he  could  meet  and  quell  any  uprising  of  the 
people  against  him.  This  brings  us  to  his  second 
memorable  return  to  Chicago  after  his  repeal  of 


350        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

the  Missouri  Compromise  in  1854.  Again  a  mob 
larger,  angrier,  and  more  implacable  than  the  one 
of  1850,  received  him  and  would  not  let  him  speak, 
though  he  tried  four  hours  (Sheahan  says,  from  8 
P.  M.  to  12).  Flags  were  at  half-mast,  church 
bells  tolled,  hisses  and  groans  were  his  welcome. 
He  gave  up  and  left  the  city,  hurrying  off  to 
Democratic  Egypt  for  consolation.  Certainly  this 
was  a  great  contrast  to  his  former  victory  over 
the  Chicago  mob,  which  now  seemed  of  a  different 
mettle.  The  Common  Council  did  not  this  time 
make  themselves  the  champions  of  "the  Laws  of 
God,"  but  their  place  was  taken  by  a  very  differ 
ent  set  of  men,  the  preachers,  largely  of  New  Eng 
land  origin,  who  turned  the  city  and  the  whole 
North- West  blue  and  sulphurous  with  the  Hell- 
fire  of  their  damnation  of  Douglas.  And  literal 
fire  was  used  to  burn  him  in  hundreds  of  effigies, 
by  whose  light  he  once  said  himself  that  he  could 
travel  all  the  way  from  Illinois  to  the  Atlantic. 
But  the  present  deep  estrangement  of  his  people 
Douglas  never  fully  overcame,  even  if  afterwards, 
through  his  attitude  toward  the  Lecompton  fraud, 
he  rose  anew  in  the  popular  estimation. 

Perhaps  all  this  opposition  to  Douglas  would  in 
time  have  bubbled  off  and  have  become  quies 
cent.  But  now  steps  forth  out  of  his  obscurity  a 
leader  of  men,  in  deep  sympathy  with  this  new 
indignation  of  the  outraged  Folk-Soul.  Abraham 
Lincoln  starts  to  organizing  these  sudden  elemental 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  (4).  351 

forces  into  a  permanent  political  party,  and  to  give 
voice  to  the  people's  antagonism  against  Douglas, 
who  has  long  been  his  personal  antagonist  and 
antitype.  But  Lincoln  is  very  careful  to  shun  the 
pitfalls  of  the  former  opponents  of  his  wily  foe. 
He  draws  the  lines  of  his  new  organization  with 
surpassing  skill.  He  shuns  the  doctrine  of  the 
Higher  Law  with  its  hostility  to  Enacted  Law  and 
Constitution.  He  grants  that  slavery  cannot  be 
touched  where  it  is  by  the  central  government,  and 
that  the  South  has  a  right  to  a  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  much  as  he  dislikes  it  personally.  In  gen 
eral,  he  makes  his  party  completely  institutional, 
and  thus  draws  to  it  and  harmonizes  with  it  the 
Folk-Soul,  which  clings  most  fervently  to  its  insti 
tutions.  At  the  same  time  he  builds  a  channel 
through  which  the  moral  protest  against  slavery 
can  find  a  vent,  and  can  finally  realize  itself  even 
in  the  Constitution. 

Well  may  Douglas  have  said  in  these  days  that 
Lincoln  gave  him  more  trouble  than  the  whole 
Senate  of  the  United  States  with  all  its  great  anti- 
slavery  orators,  including  Chase,  Sumner,  Seward, 
every  one  of  whom  was  inclined  to  let  their  moral 
indignation  violate  the  institutional  sense.  Then 
Douglas  has  not  now  before  him  the  aristocratic 
Senate,  to  whose  character  he  had  by  long  practice 
completely  assimilated  himself,  but  he  must  address 
the  People  of  the  North- West  and  meet  in  their 
presence  Lincoln,  the  greatest  champion  they  ever 


352       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

had,  who  by  long  practice  had  assimilated  himself 
to  them  and  had  become  their  very  voice.  Doug 
las,  therefore,  in  his  turn,  has  to  pass  through  a 
time  of  estrangement  from  the  Folk-Soul,  though 
it  will  be  quite  different  from  that  out  of  which 
Lincoln  is  just  emerging.  He  will  suffer  no  drop 
into  the  unseen  depths  below,  like  a  geologic  fault 
in  the  earth  whose  surface  sometimes  breaks  and 
sinks  many  fathoms  down  out  of  sight.  No  long 
penitential  subsidence  will  he  wander  through  in 
the  night  of  his  soul,  the  pugnacious  Little  Giant; 
rather  will  he  thrust  himself,  into  the  public  eye 
more  than  ever,  valiantly  fighting  a  losing  battle 
during  his  sexennial  combat  (1854-60),  with  a 
tough  heroic  endurance.  But  he  at  last  will  end 
(as  we  shall  see)  in  peace  and  reconciliation,  even 
with  his  mortal  antitype. 

Lincoln  knows  well  his  own  personal  feeling 
toward  Douglas,  that  unworthy  strain  of  jealousy 
in  his  heart;  he  knows  too  that  it  must  now  be 
kept  under,  or  at  least  be  used  to  tip  with  the  fire 
of  its  passion  the  arrows  of  justice  that  they  burn 
to  their  mark.  Every  great  deed  done  by  man 
has  its  individual  side,  which  is  his  interest  or  his 
passion;  but  this  must  be  subordinated  to  the 
universal  end,  and  thus  become  ennobled  through 
bringing  about  something  far  higher  and  worthier 
than  itself.  Some  such  transformation  we  may 
now  observe  in  Lincoln. 


LINCOLN'S  EMERGENCE.  353 

VI. 

Lincoln's  Emergence. 

Already  it  has  been  observed  that  Lincoln  in  his 
Peoria  speech  (October,  1854),  had  not  yet  fully 
evolved.  He  did  not  yet  fully  see  the  bearing 
of  the  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  upon 
the  Nation  or  upon  his  own  career.  But  when 
perchance  about  a  year  later  he  is  seen  "half  sit 
ting  up  in  his  bed,"  seemingly  after  a  night's 
struggle,  and  is  heard  declaring,  "this  Nation  can 
not  exist  half  slave  and  half  free,"  he  has  tran 
scended  the  limitations  of  his  Peoria  speech,  and 
his  emergence  may  be  deemed  complete.  The  Re 
peal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  need  not  now  be 
repealed;  indeed  it  must  stand  as  a  great  step 
toward  the  goal  beginning  to  hover  distantly  in 
Lincoln's  outlook.  He  finds  lurking  in  that  Re 
peal  a  foreshadowing  of  the  obliteration  of  the 
institutional  difference  between  North  and  South. 
It  starts  to  wiping  out  Mason  and  Dixon's  line 
both  literally  and  spiritually.  It  commences  the 
rapid  stride  toward  Appomattox.  Truly  Lincoln 
has  now  heard  and  begun  to  utter  the  decree  of 
the  World-Spirit. 

To  be  sure,  in  some  of  his  later  speeches  he  still 
seems  to  favor  the  abrogation  of  the  Repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  using  it  chiefly  to  tilt 
against  Douglas,  whose  act  he  with  his  party  op 
poses.  The  full  bearing  of  that  Repeal  indeed 

23 


354      ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

nobody  appears  to  have  yet  fathomed.  We  have 
seen  great  Senators  opposing  it,  while  declaring  it 
to  be  the  best  thing  that  ever  happened  against 
slavery.  Lincoln  also  is  at  first  caught  in  that  subtle 
irony  of  the  World-Spirit,  which  is  compelling  the 
hottest  supporters  of  slavery  to  destroy  it,  and 
the  ablest  opponents  of  slavery  to  fight  for  it,  of 
course  unconsciously.  But  Lincoln  will  soon  come 
to  see  that  the  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise  was,  in  its  deepest  though  unintended  scope, 
the  mightiest  stride  ever  yet  made  toward  the  de 
struction  of  slavery.  Through  it  alone  could  he 
ever  have  been  led  to  say  that  this  Nation  must 
become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other,  the  wall  of 
separation  being  now  broken  down.  Hence  he 
grows  less  insistent  upon  repealing  the  Repeal, 
that  is,  upon  setting  up  the  dividing  wall  again. 
Indeed  after  the  Dred  Scott  decision  that  wall 
could  not  well  be  replaced  by  any  Congressional 
action  or  compromise.  It  may  be  here  added 
that  even  Douglas,  after  three  years  or  so,  recog 
nizes  the  anti-slavery  trend  in  his  Repeal,  and  se 
cretly  takes  credit  for  it  with  certain  Republicans. 
But  let  us  again  cast  a  look  upon  Lincoln  emerg 
ing  from  that  long,  dark,  silent  Subsidence,  a  sort 
of  unsung  purgatorial  journey  through  which  he 
has  now  passed.  Let  us  recur  once  more  to  that 
significant  picture  of  him  sitting  up  in  his  bed  and 
voicing  his  soul's  sleepless  wrestle.  The  image  re- 


LINCOLN'S  EMERGENCE.  355 

calls  the  four  greatest   lines,  in   our  judgment,  of 
modern  poetry: 

Wer  nie  sein  Brod  mit  Thranen  ass, 

Wer  nie  die  kftmmervollen  Nachte, 
Auf  seinem  Bette  weinend  sass, 

Der  kennt  euch  nicht,  ihr  himmlischeiTMachte. 

So  says  Goethe,  poetizing  how  the  human  be 
ing  comes  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Supernal  Pow 
ers.  Lincoln  may  not  have  shed  tears  like  the 
more  sentimental  German,  but  the  conflict  which 
brings  him  to  a  vision  of  the  Divine  Order  is  the 
same.  He  is  rising  out  of  that  sunless  Subsidence 
into  the  illumination  of  the  coming  sun-up,  and 
he  hears  the  behest  of  the  God  of  Light,  and  gives 
to  it  an  utterance. 

Such,  then,  may  be  deemed  Lincoln's  emer 
gence,  and  its  first  pregnant  expression.  He  is 
passing  out  of  that  unspoken  discipline  of  six 
years,  during  which  he  has  been  undergoing  an 
inner  transformation,  as  well  as  winning  back  the 
Folk-Soul,  whose  estrangement  from  him  has  been 
already  recorded.  Of  a  sudden  the  two  come  to 
gether  and  unite  in  a  kind  of  lightning  flash, 
though  both  had  been  slowly  unfolding  toward 
this  new  reconciliation,  not  to  be  dissolved  again 
at  death,  but  rather  to  grow  through  and  after 
death.  The  two  souls,  that  of  the  Folk  and  that 
of  Lincoln,  are  now  joined  in  an  immortal  love, 
the  depth  and  intensity  of  which  even  increase  as 
the  years  keep  receding  from  his  mortal  presence. 


356       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

And  another  peculiar  conjunction  may  be  wit 
nessed:  Lincoln  and  Douglas  again  whirl  to 
gether,  but  far  more  mightily  in  their  antithetic 
careers;  not  since  they  had  their  first  early  tourna 
ment  at  Springfield  have  they  met  in  a  direct  per 
sonal  contest.  During  thirteen  years  and  more, 
each  has  moved  in  his  own  separate  orbit.  Still 
they  are  counterparts,  and  form  the  two  living 
sides  of  one  total  movement.  They  belong  to 
gether,  one  cannot  truly  be  without  the  other,  and 
History  cannot  do  without  either.  So  behold 
them  once  more  revolving  about  each  other  with 
an  ever-increasing  velocity,  yet  moving  toward 
their  common  goal.  This  makes  a  new  epoch  in 
the  life  of  Lincoln,  and  also  in  that  of  Douglas; 
the  Lincoln-Douglas  sexennium  it  is  now,  in 
which  the  long  rivalry  of  the  two  protagonists  has 
to  be  definitely  settled ;  both  appeal  to  their  com 
mon  State,  and  then  to  their  common  Nation, 
which  makes  the  choice  between  the  Dioscuri  of 
the  Prairie,  and  thus  closes  the  contest. 


CHAPTER  THIRD. 

IRationai  Cbotce, 


So  another  epoch  of  some  six  years  has  arisen 
(1855-1861)  which  presents  the  alternative  to 
the  Folk-Soul,  Lincoln  or  Douglas?  Hitherto  we 
have  seen  the  twain  repeatedly  conjoined  in  this 
biography  under  the  rubric  "  Lincoln  and  Douglas/7 
each  on  the  whole  pursuing  his  own  way,  yet 
continually  interrelated  in  a  kind  of  antithetic 
movement.  In  the  first  epoch  (1842-9)  of  the 
present  Period  we  have  watched  Lincoln  losing 
touch  with  the  Folk-Soul  of  the  State  and  Section, 
and  then  being  plunged  into  a  time  of  obscura 
tion,  during  which  he  has  slowly  been  restoring 
the  lost  tie  (1849-55)  .  Quite  the  reverse  has  been 
the  career  of  Douglas  in  these  two  epochs  :  the  first 
shows  him  in  harmony  with  the  Folk-Soul  and 
riding  by  means  of  its  favor  buoyantly  to  his  high 
est  position  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  ;  but 
in  the  second  epoch  he  can  be  observed  moving 
gradually  toward  his  great  breach  with  the  Folk- 
Soul  of  his  State  and  Section,  through  his  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  Thus  the  two  antitypal 
characters  of  the  time  show  two  antithetic  move 
ments  which  we  may  imagine  to  curve  around 
opposed  to  each  other  in  this  way  :  while  Lincoln 
is  going  down,  Douglas  is  mounting  up,  and  then 

(357) 


358        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

when  Lincoln  rises  again,  Douglas  is  sinking.  Still 
Douglas,  on  account  of  his  lengthy  Senatorial 
tenure,  is  not  remanded  to  the  Folk-Soul,  there  to 
do  long  penance  in  obscurity,  till  he  becomes 
transformed,  as  was  the  case  with  Lincoln.  Doug 
las  still  can  fight  from  his  vantage-place  in  the 
Senate,  shaking  his  lion's  mane  with  a  grandiose 
pugnacity,  even  against  the  irate  People.  Bub  the 
time  will  come  when  he  has  to  appear  before  its 
judgment-seat,  there  to  face  Lincoln  as  accuser. 

Douglas  did  the  greatest  favor  to  Lincoln  that 
the  latter  ever  received,  though  -there  was  no  such 
intention  and  the  act  was  unconscious.  The  re 
peal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  brought  to  the 
front  the  question  whether  the  Union  shall  hence 
forth  produce  Slave-States  or  Free-States.  This 
gave  to  Lincoln  his  true  theme,  and  opened  to 
him  the  opportunity  of  becoming  the  Great  Man 
of  his  age.  Already  his  persistent  voting  for  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  indicates  his  conviction  that  the 
Nation  must  produce  Free-States  only;  but  through 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  he  is  driven 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  Nation  cannot  continue 
half  slave  and  half  free.  We  conceive  Lincoln 
standing  behind  that  dividing  wall  quite  paralyzed 
through  his  acceptance  of  it  as  final,  and  indeed 
insurmountable,  till  Douglas  breaches  it  and  act 
ually  throws  it  down,  aided  enthusiastically  by 
the  South.  Then  Lincoln  rushes  in,  followed  by 
the  North  at  first  reluctantly,  and  sweeps  onward 


CHAPTER  THIRD— THE  NATIONAL  CHOICE.  359 

till  he  enfranchises  not  only  the  territories,  but  all 
the  Slave-States  new  and  old.  The  first  direct 
breach  leading  to  this  event  was  made  by  Doug 
las,  and  made  by  him  unwittingly,  for  Lincoln, 
who  could  not  have  done  it  himself.  Through 
this  same  breach  Douglas  designed  to  march  to 
the  Presidency,  but  through  it  without  design 
Lincoln  was  the  man  who  marched  to  the  Presi 
dency  instead  of  Douglas. 

In  fact  the  deepest  work  of  Douglas  in  this 
part  of  his  career  is  that  of  a  divider  of  his  own 
people.  He  breaches  the  Democratic  Convention 
of  1852,  causing  such  a  violent  rupture  between 
the  old  and  new  set  of  leaders  that  the  dark  horse 
called  Franklin  Pierce,  has  to  be  brought  out. 
Then  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  has 
certainly  breached  the  masses  of  his  party.  Then 
he  breaches  his  own  Democratic  Administration 
under  Buchanan  in  the  Kansas  trouble.  We  shall 
see  that  he  will  almost  succeed  in  breaching  his 
Republican  opponents,  but  he  will  be  thwarted  in 
that  act  by  Lincoln.  Nor  is  this  the  end  of  his 
breaching.  He  becomes  a  separator,  a  dualizer, 
after  being  at  first  a  compromiser,  supporting 
strongly  the  Compromises  of  1820  and  of  1850. 
Thus  he  turns  a  destroyer  of  his  own  party,  doubt 
less  unintentionally.  He  undoes  it,  seeking  its 
headship,  and  prepares  the  way  for  Lincoln,  who 
ought  to  thank  him,  but  does  not,  for  he  too  can 
not  fully  comprehend  the  plan  of  the  World-Spirit 


360       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—PART  SECOND. 

in  using  Douglas  to  breach  his  own  party.  A 
deeply  negative  strain  runs  through  his  career 
during  the  present  epoch  of  it,  manifesting  its 
highest  point  in  the  negation  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise.  He  practically  wipes  out  the  agreed  line 
of  separation  between  North  and  South,  and  then 
brings  that  separation  into  the  Democracy,  which 
topples  it  down  from  its  supremacy.  Note  again 
the  contrast:  while  Lincoln  is  unifying  himself 
out  of  his  dualism,  Douglas  is  dualizing  himself 
out  of  his  former  oneness.  In  general  it  may  be 
said  that  the  World-Spirit  now  employs  Douglas 
as  a  mighty  demonic  energy  of  destruction  inside 
his  own  political  organization,  which  is  thus  made 
self-undoing.  Meanwhile  we  can  see  Lincoln 
going  the  other  way,  working  to  bring  forth  a  new 
positive  order  out  of  the  break-up  and  wreckage 
of  parties.  In  this  sexennial  epoch  we  are  to 
behold  the  dualizer  Douglas  and  the  unionizer 
Lincoln  as  counterparts  in  the  one  great  move 
ment  of  the  time,  the  negation  of  Douglas  being 
the  condition  of  the  affirmation  of  Lincoln.  The 
dual  Nation,  so  strongly  insisted  upon  by  the 
Little  Giant  is  to  be  made  over  into  the  one  Na 
tion  by  the  Big  Giant.  Still  it  must  not  be  for 
gotten  that  Douglas,  amid  all  his  breaches  and 
dualisms,  did  in  the  deepest  of  him  cling  to  the 
Federal  Union  as  the  ark  of  salvation;  therein  far 
down  at  the  bottom  of  their  political  being  he  and 
Lincoln  were  one,  and  rested  on  the  same  ultimate 


CHAPTER  THIRD— THE  NATIONAL  CHOICE.  361 

foundation.  Will  anything  in  the  future  ever 
bring  that  deepest  common  conviction,  that  one 
ness  of  the  now  antagonistic,  yea  antitypal  twain, 
to  the  surface,  where  it  can  be  seen  and  even  pro 
claimed?  Yes,  we  may  here  foresay,  taking  a  look 
in  advance;  on  that  Sunday  at  Washington,  when 
news  of  the  firing  upon  Sumter  arrives,  Douglas 
will  proceed  to  the  White  House  and  en.ist  under 
Lincoln,  then  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and 
navy  of  the  United  States — seemingly  the  first  en 
listed  man  of  the  war.  That  is  indeed  the  end  of 
their  long  rivalry ;  they  have  reached  down  to  the 
institutional  unity  which  was  common  to  both 
from  the  beginning,  and  which  underlay  their 
deepest  political  differences. 

The  point  in  which  they  came  together  from  op 
posite  poles  was  the  love  of  the  Union.  Their  po 
larity  showed  itself  in  their  diverse  policies  for 
keeping  the  Union  intact.  Its  dualism,  its  half- 
and-halfness  must  come  to  an  end,  says  Lincoln; 
that  is  what  must  endure  to  the  last,  says  Doug 
las,  who,  however,  never  went  so  far  as  to  favor 
Calhoun's  dyarchy,  or  scheme  of  two  Presidents, 
Northern  and  Southern,  with  a  power  of  mutual 
veto.  Both,  so  antipathetic  otherwise,  loved  the 
Union;  this  must  remain,  though  Lincoln  wanted 
it  homogeneous  as  to  freedom,  but  Douglas  heter 
ogeneous.  Upon  this  difference  is  their  struggle, 
till  they  both  are  brought  to  face  the  deeper  con 
flict,  that  against  the  Union  itself. 


362        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Thus  we  enter  upon  a  third  sexennium,  not 
pressing  too  rigidly  its  limits  in  time.  From  Lin 
coln  emergent  to  Lincoln  as  President  lies  an 
epoch  of  his  life  lasting  six  years  about,  and  hav 
ing  its  own  central  fact  or  unity.  This  unity  lies 
in  the  continued  contest  of  Lincoln  against 
Douglas  as  the  originator,  defender,  and  promulga- 
tor,  first  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 
and  then  of  its  correlative  doctrine,  Popular  Sov 
ereignty.  The  combat  started  really  when  Lin 
coln  first  grappled  his  antagonist  at  the  Spring 
field  Fair,  October  4th,  1854,  and  ended  with  his 
election  to  the  Presidency  over  Douglas  mainly, 
and  his  inauguration  at  Washington  March  4th, 
1861,  at  which  Douglas  was  present  and  courteously 
held  his  hat — a  very  striking,  and  we  think,  sig 
nificant  act,  turning  gently  the  long  and  bitter 
contest  into  a  kind  of  reconciliation,  probably 
more  on  the  part  of  Douglas  than  of  Lincoln. 

The  present  is  indeed  the  final  desperate  strug 
gle  between  the  two  political  combatants,  which 
always  had  its  personal  substrate  springing  from 
two  opposite  characters  and  two  radically  differ 
ent  world-views.  Hence,  we  call  them  antitypes, 
whose  individual  collision  was  at  first  local  and 
confined  to  their  State,  but  rose  gradually  to  be 
ing  national,  and  finally  world-historical.  We 
have  already  noted  far  back  in  the  legislature  of 
Illinois  their  original  diversity,  as  well  as  the  start 
ing-point  of  their  double  career.  Neither  probably 


CHAPTER  THIRD— THE  NATIONAL  CHOICE.  363 

ever  lost  sight  of  the  other;  each  forefelt  in  the 
other  the  lurking  demon  of  his  own  negation.  So, 
like  double  suns,  they  circled  about  each  other 
mutually  repellent,  yet  inseparable  and  moving  in 
a  common  political  orbit.  At  first  Douglas  was 
the  great  luminary  and  shone  with  a  dazzling  ra 
diance,  while  Lincoln  passed  spiritually  into  an 
eclipse,  out  of  which  he  finally  rose,  surpassing,  if 
not  absorbing,  his  rival. 

We  have  seen  Lincoln  following  Douglas  from 
place  to  place  when  the  latter  had  returned  home 
from  Washington  in  1854,  just  after  his  great 
deed  of  erasing  the  Missouri  Compromise  line. 
Suddenly  Lincoln  quits  the  quest  and  goes  back 
to  his  law-office  at  Springfield.  What  is  the  mat 
ter?  It  is  reported  that  after  the  Peoria  encoun 
ter  Douglas  hunted  him  up  and  said  to  him  flat 
teringly:  "You  are  giving  me  more  trouble  in  de 
bate  than  all  the  United  States  Senate;  let  us 
both  stop  and  go  home."  Lincoln  agreed,  being 
through  his  feelings  somewhat  gullible;  report  says 
that  Douglas  broke  the  agreement  and  spoke 
afterwards  at  Princeton,  Ills.,  being  harried  there 
by  the  taunts  of  Owen  Love  joy.  In  consequence 
of  this  violation  of  promise  Lincoln  felt  himself 
overreached,  and  lowered  his  opinion  of  Douglas, 
previously  not  very  high.  In  this  connection 
Herndon  cites  a  humorous  but  searching  judgment 
of  Lincoln  about  his  own  weakness:  "It's  a  fortu 
nate  thing  I  wasn't  born  a  woman,  for  I  cannot 


364       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

refuse  anything,  it  seems."  The  power  to  say  no 
was  not  strongly  developed  in  him,  when  he  was 
touched  through  his  emotions;  still  we  shall  see 
that  he  had  an  iron  Will,  when  the  emergency 
called  it  out.  Otherwise  Feeling  would  often  sur 
prise  him  and  make  him  too  yielding  on  what 
seemed  to  him  lesser  matters. 

In  1854  Lincoln  was  elected  to  the  State  Legis 
lature  from  old  Sangamon,  as  he  had  been  twenty 
years  before  from  New  Salem.  In  that  early 
legislative  experience  of  his,  he  had  first  met 
Douglas,  and  it  is  probable  that  even  then 
they  eyed  each  other  in  a  kind  of  forefeeling  of 
their  life's  rivalry.  Mighty  and  angry  was  the 
rise  of  the  Folk-Soul  against  its  favorite  Douglas, 
and  Lincoln  was  its  foremost  champion.  He  re 
signed  his  position  in  the  local  Legislature  that  he 
might  be  a  candidate  for  the  National  Senator- 
ship.  The  brilliant  prize  of  his  highest  ambition 
floated  alluringly  before  him.  Illinois  had  chosen 
in  1854  an  anti-Nebraska  Legislature,  which  was 
to  elect  a  Senator  in  place  of  Shields,  Lincoln's  old 
fellow-duelist  and  a  follower  of  Douglas.  The  po 
sition  naturally  belonged  to  Lincoln  as  the  chief 
leader  of  the  new  movement,  and  as  the  ablest  an 
tagonist  of  the  Little  Giant.  Thus  their  contest 
would  become  national,  being  transferred  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States.  But  Lincoln  did 
not  win,  though  he  had  a  much  larger  vote  in  the 
legislature  than  any  other  anti-Nebraska  candi- 


CHAPTER  THIRD— THE  NATIONAL  CHOICE.  365 

date.  There  were  some  members  of  the  Demo 
cratic  antecedents  who  would  not  support  him, 
an  old  Whig,  so  that  he  had  in  the  end  to  throw 
his  influence  to  Trumbull,  who  was  chosen.  Four 
years  later  he  will  meet  with  the  same  failure. 
The  spirit  presiding  over  his  destiny  will  keep  him 
out  of  the  Senate,  and  with  good  reason.  Lincoln 
has  another  task  than  the  legislative,  and  must  be 
held  to  his  training.  The  Senate  is  a  formal, 
aristocratic  body;  Lincoln,  on  the  contrary,  was 
informal  and  democratic.  Of  all  the  branches  of 
our  government,  the  Senate  is  farthest  removed 
from  the  people,  and  is  the  least  responsive  to 
the  popular  heart.  The  aristocratic  South  was 
long  intrenched  in  the  Senate  as  its  stronghold, 
and  proposed  to  hold  it  through  new  Slave  States. 
The  struggle  in  Kansas  went  back  to  a  struggle 
for  the  possession  of  the  Senate.  Douglas  had 
lost  touch  with  the  people  of  his  State  and  the 
North  through  his  long  Senatorial  career.  Lincoln 
is,  accordingly,  remanded  by  his  good  Genius,  to 
be  sure  against  his  will,  to  the  people,  from  whom 
he  is  not  to  separate.  If  he  had  gone  to  the 
Senate  in  1855,  he  would  probably  never  have 
been  President.  On  the  whole  the  instinct  of  the 
Nation  has  been  to  keep  its  greatest  Senators  out 
of  the  Presidency,  notably  Clay  and  Webster,  also 
Benton  and  Calhoun,  and  we  may  add  Douglas 
and  Seward  and  Elaine.  No,  the  Senate  was  not 
the  place  for  Lincoln,  and  we  believe  that  he  felt 


366        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—PART  SECOND. 

something  of  the  kind  after  the  contest  was  over. 
He  was  to  stay  back  and  live  with  the  Folk-Soul 
till  it  was  ready  to  bear  him  aloft  directly  to  the 
highest  position  in  the  land,  that  he  be  its  leader 
in  its  supreme  crisis.  The  fact  is,  the  Senate  and 
the  Presidency  have  shown  themselves  more  anti 
pathetic  to  each  other  than  any  of  the  rest  of  the 
Constitutional  offices. 

What  Lincoln  had  really  to  do  next  is  seen  in 
what  he  set  about  doing  after  his  defeat  for  the 
Senate.  Many  discordant  and  otherwise  hostile 
elements  had  been  suddenly  dashed  together  in 
opposition  to  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise.  Moreover  they  had  won  their  first  battle, 
after  which  they  began  to  show  signs  of  going 
asunder.  Lincoln's  immediate  task  was  to  keep 
them  together  by  organizing  them  into  a  new  po 
litical  party  based  on  their  common  principle,  and 
to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  it  as  mouthpiece  and 
leader.  The  newspapers  must  first  be  secured  and 
united ;  a  convention  of  the  anti-Nebraska  editors 
of  the  State  was  called  at  Decatur,  in  whose  work 
Lincoln  is  known  to  have  had  a  hand.  On  the 
same  day,  February  22nd,  1856,  a  national  con 
vention  with  a  similar  purpose  was  held  at  Pitts- 
burg,  which  set  in  motion  the  Republican  party 
in  the  Nation. 

The  Decatur  meeting  called  a  convention  to  be 
held  at  Bloomington  May  29th,  for  the  purpose  of 
nominating  a  State  ticket  and  sending  a  delega- 


CHAPTER  THIRD— THE  NATIONAL  CHOICE.  367 

tion  to  the  first  Republican  National  Convention 
at  Philadelphia,  June  17th.  The  dissident  ele 
ments  of  the  young  party  were  still  imperfectly 
welded  together;  the  old  divisions  of  Whig,  Dem 
ocrat,  Free-Soil  still  seamed  through  the  Conven 
tion  and  antagonized  its  members.  They  had  not 
forgotten  their  ancient  history.  Who  is  the  man 
that  can  fuse  them  into  harmony  and  unity 
here  and  now?  There  was  a  call  for  Lincoln,  a 
spontaneous  shout  for  the  leader.  He  came  for 
ward  and  made  a  speech  whose  effect  was  long  re 
membered,  for  it  smelted  all  the  refractory  ingredi 
ents  of  that  Convention  and  rendered  a  united 
Republican  party  possible  in  Illinois.  Moreover  it 
placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  new  organization  of 
his  State,  and  on  the  line  of  march  toward  the 
Presidency.  It  has  been  known  as  the  lost  speech 
of  Lincoln,  as  it  was  not  reported  in  the  news 
papers. 

Accordingly  we  now  start  upon  the  third  sexennial 
epoch  of  Lincoln  in  this  Second  Period  of  some 
eighteen  to  nineteen  years — say  from  1842  till 
1861 — during  which  his  supreme  personal  task  is 
to  make  himself  national.  The  whole  time  we  see 
him  in  training  to  be  the  leader  and  also  the 
teacher  of  the  Folk-Soul  in  its  long  onerous  world- 
historical  duty  of  bringing  the  dual  Union  to  one 
ness,  through  freedom.  He  is  the  chosen  man, 
chosen  first  by  himself  and  then  by  the  World- 
Spirit,  to  lead  the  Nation  out  of  its  old,  ever-men- 


368       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

acing  half-and-halfness  into  a  true  unity  with 
itself.  So  we  mark  three  sexenniums  in  the  pres 
ent  Period  of  Lincoln's  biography,  each  of  which 
has  its  own  distinct  movement  of  his  spirit.  First 
he  nationalizes  himself  immediately,  passing 
from  Springfield  to  Washington;  but  thereby  he  is 
plunged  into  the  national  dualism,  out  of  which  he 
has  to  unfold  through  a  long  submergence;  finally 
he  nationalizes  himself  again,  but  now  unified  out 
of  dualism,  and  proclaiming  the  unity  of  Nation  as 
Free-State  producing  only.  Truly  the  Great  Man 
must  unify  himself  before  he  can  unify  his  People. 
In  this  last  sexennial  epoch  Lincoln  will  have 
Douglas  as  his  ever-present  competitor  who  repre 
sents  the  Double  Nation  in  the  North,  which  is 
called  to  choose  between  the  two  contestants  and 
their  principles.  Even  Lincoln  proposes  to  keep 
the  old  Nation  double,  but  not  the  new-born  chil 
dren  of  it,  the  incoming  States.  But  the  outcome 
is  that  both  parties  of  the  North  and  both  North 
ern  leaders,  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  are  unified  in  the 
presence  of  the  deeper  dualism,  called  Disunion, 
which  ominously  rises  to  the  surface  in  the  South. 
With  this  practical  evanishment  of  the  Northern 
dualism,  the  hotly  contested  Lincoln-Douglas  sex- 
ennium  closes,  but  at  the  same  time  opens  upon 
the  greater  national  conflict.  Now  for  the  record 
of  the  final  grapple  between  the  two  mighty  anti 
types,  certainly  the  greatest  characters  of  the  po 
litical  sort  in  the  Nation. 


KANSAS,  369 

I. 

Kansas. 

It  happened  during  this  time  that  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise  did  not  merely  excite  a 
theoretical  discussion  about  slavery,  but  it  intro 
duced  at  once  an  intense,  ever-irritating  practical 
problem.  The  Kansas  territory  being  opened  for 
settlement,  immigrants  from  the  North  began  to 
pour  in  with  the  design  of  making  it  a  Free-State. 
On  the  other  hand  armed  bands  came  across  from 
the  Missouri  border  for  the  purpose  of  seizing  the 
election  machinery  and  through  it  forcing  Kansas 
into  slavery  by  fraud  and  violence.  A  collision 
between  the  two  sides  seemed  certain  already  in 
1854,  and  the  prelude  of  the  coming  Civil  War 
began  to  be  heard  in  Kansas.  We  may  note  that 
Lincoln  in  his  Peoria  speech  gave  a  striking  de 
scription  of  the  colliding  elements  already  on  the 
ground  at  work,  and  then  added  a  deep-toned 
prophetic  forecast  of  the  conflict  which  was  certain 
to  arise  out  of  it  and  to  involve  the  whole  country : 

"And  really  what  is  to  be  the  result  of  this? 
Each  party  within  having  numerous  and  deter 
mined  backers  without,  is  it  not  probable  that  the 
contest  will  come  to  blows  and  bloodshed?  Could 
there  be  a  more  apt  invention  to  bring  about  col 
lision  and  violence  on  the  slavery  question  than 
this  Nebraska  project  is?  I  do  not  charge  or  be 
lieve  that  such  was  intended  by  Congress;  but  if 


24 


370      ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

they  had  literally  formed  a  ring  and  placed  cham 
pions  within  it  to  fight  out  the  controversy,  the 
fight  could  not  be  more  likely  to  come  off  than  it 
is,  and  if  this  fight  should  begin,  is  it  likely  to  take 
a  very  peaceful,  Union-saving  turn?  Will  not  the 
first  drop  of  blood  so  shed  be  the  real  knell  of  the 
Union?" 

It  must  be  recollected  that  this  speech  was  de 
livered  in  October,  1854,  barely  four  months  after 
the  opening  of  the  territory  for  settlement  by  the 
proclamation  of  President  Pierce.  Already  Kan 
sas  had  become  the  arena  of  contest  and  the 
champions  had  entered  the  lists.  Next  month  the 
Missourians  will  cross  the  border  and  elect  Whit- 
field  delegate  to  Congress  (November,  1854) ,  with 
out  opposition  however.  But  the  following  spring 
(March,  1855),  the  first  invasion  of  Kansas  takes 
place  from  Missouri,  for  the  purpose  of  choosing  a 
legislature.  At  this  point  resistance  begins,  and 
the  war  opens,  destined  to  spread  from  Kansas 
over  the  whole  land,  and  to  last  ten  years.  Very 
suggestive  is  it  to  note  this  early  foreboding  of 
Lincoln  who  seems  to  hear  in  the  distance  "the 
knell  of  the  Union,"  but  who  is  destined  to  be  the 
supreme  leader  and  supereminent  figure  in  the 
preservation  of  the  Union. 

As  already  stated  Lincoln  proceeds  to  organize 
the  seething  chaotic  opposition  of  the  Folk-Soul 
to  Douglas  and  his  Nebraska  policy  and  to  solidify 
it  into  a  permanent  party.  Kansas  helps  him,  or 


KANSAS.  371 

rather  the  Missourians  who,  by  renewed  invasions, 
keep  the  North  in  a  continual  whirl  of  agitation 
and  wrath.  The  excitement  is  not  permitted  by 
the  South  to  die  out  till  the  Republican  party  be 
formed  with  its  one  basic  principle:  no  more  sla 
very  in  the  territories.  All  of  them  must  be  free, 
not  alone  Kansas,  which,  however,  is  the  immediate 
present  goal.  Of  course  this  means  that  now  a 
great  organization  has  arisen  which  declares  that 
the  Union  must  hereafter  produce  Free-States 
only.  Thus  the  issue  has  become  open,  palpable, 
direct,  and  is  to  be  fought  to  a  finish. 

Such  was  in  general  the  purpose  and  the  theme 
of  Lincoln's  "Lost  Speech"  (at  Bloomington,  May 
29th,  1856),  which  had  such  a  hypnotic  power  upon 
even  the  hardened  reporters,  that  they  forgot  their 
vocation  and  could  not  move  a  finger  to  write  a 
sentence.  Still  a  few  fragments  of  this  most  fa 
mous  and  seemingly  most  impassioned  political 
speech  that  Lincoln  ever  made,  has  been  dug  up 
in  recent  years  (see  Miss  Tarbell's  Life  of  Lincoln, 
II.,  p.  306).  The  upper  note  appears  to  have 
been:  Kansas  must  be  free.  Still  this  is  not  to  be 
done  by  violence  but  peaceably,  by  ballot  and  not 
by  bullet.  The  restoration  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  is  still  mentioned  by  Lincoln,  but  it  rather 
falls  into  the  background  in  view  of  the  more 
pressing  question,  the  freedom  of  Kansas.  He 
however,  feels  that  sooner  or  later  we  may  have  to 
meet  force  by  force,  "but  the  time  has  not  yet 


372       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

come"  in  the  present  year  1856.  Strangely  pre 
monitory  is  this  gleam  of  what  he  will  be  called 
to  do  in  1861 !  Moreover  in  attaining  these  re 
sults  we  must  be  loyal  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union.  Lincoln  is  not  a  revolutionist,  but  a  thor 
oughly  institutional  man.  Indeed  he  has  a  pre 
sentiment  that  he  with  his  new  party  may  be  forced 
to  maintain  the  Union  against  the  Southern  Dis- 
unionists  who  already  are  threatening  its  dissolu 
tion  in  case  of  the  election  of  a  Republican  Presi 
dent.  This  brings  him  to  what  must  be  deemed 
the  climax  of  his  speech,  which  was  seared  upon 
the  memory  of  those  present :  " We  will  say  to 
the  Southern  disunionists :  We  won't  go  out  of  the 
Union  and  you  shan't." 

Thus  Lincoln  makes  himself  the  voice  of  the 
Northern  Folk-Soul,  and  prefigures  in  his  words 
the  act  of  1861  some  five  years  before  the  fulfil 
ment.  What  he  here  declares,  is  to  be  accom 
plished  in  the  deed;  he  voices  to  the  people  in  the 
dialect  of  the  people  the  decree  of  the  World- 
Spirit  .  We  the  North  wont't  go  out  of  the  Union 
and  you  (the  South)  shan't.  It  is  the  grand  pro 
hibition  uttered  years  beforehand  which  has  to  be 
enforced  by  arms.  The  effect  of  the  words  seemed 
to  work  upon  the  hearers  like  an  inspiration  from 
supernal  sources.  Lincoln  prophesies  what  is  to 
be,  and  unconsciously  places  himself  as  the  exec 
utor  of  the  supreme  behest:  You  shan't. 

Many  sporadic  attempts  had  been  made  to  form 


KANSAS.  373 

a  new  party  in  opposition  to  the  pro-slavery  ten 
dencies  of  the  Democracy.  There  has  been  no  lit 
tle  disputation  about  the  place  where  the  Republi 
can  party  started,  and  about  the  man  who  was  its 
true  founder.  Numerous  centers  of  crystallization 
may  be  pointed  out  during  this  anti-Nebraska  pe 
riod  in  most  of  the  Northern  States.  Victories 
had  been  won  and  Illinois  had  sent  an  anti-Ne 
braska  Senator  to  Washington,  Trumbull.  Still 
the  forces  opposed  to  the  compact,  well-drilled 
Democracy  were  an  irregular  militia,  full  of  fight 
but  without  much  unity  or  discipline.  Now,  this 
Convention  at  Bloomington  (May  29th,  1856), 
was  the  most  important  act  of  co-alescence  in  the 
history  of  the  Republican  party,  and  this  was 
mainly  the  work  of  Lincoln.  His  speech  fused  the 
recalcitrant  self-repellent  atoms  and  laid  down 
the  lines  upon  which  there  could  be  an  united  ac 
tion  in  the  future.  He  centered  the  opposition  to 
the  one  supreme  point  of  keeping  slavery  out  of 
the  Territories.  At  the  same  time  this  opposition 
must  be  in  accord  with  Law  and  Constitution. 
Only  thus  could  it  win  the  support  of  the  anti- 
slavery  men  of  Southern  birth,  of  whom  Central 
and  Southern  Illinois  were  full,  Lincoln  himself 
being  one  of  them  and  their  greatest  representa 
tive. 

On  this  last  point  a  significant  citation  from 
Lincoln's  "Lost  Speech"  (as  reported  by  Whitney) 
may  be  given.  After  stating  the  fact  that  free- 


374      ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

dom  was  preserved  to  Illinois  in  1824  through  the 
strenuous  efforts  of  Governor  Coles,  who  was  "a 
native  of  Maryland  and  President  Madison's  pri 
vate  secretary,"  Lincoln  speaks  of  his  own  South 
ern  associates:  "Palmer,  Yates,  Williams,  Brown 
ing  and  some  more  in  the  Convention  came  from 
Kentucky  to  Illinois  (instead  of  going  to  Mis 
souri)  ,  not  only  to  better  their  conditions,  but  to 
get  away  from  slavery.  They  have  said  so  to  me, 
and  it  is  understood  among  us  Kentuckians  that 
we  do  not  like  it  one  bit."  Here  we  catch  a 
glimpse  of  the  underlying  motive  of  that  great 
migration  from  the  Slave-States  to  the  North- 
West,  which  had  been  going  on  so  many  years, 
and  of  which  Lincoln  himself  was  an  example. 
And  the  further  reflection  presses  to  the  front  that 
the  Republican  party,  with  its  hostility  to  slavery 
so  carefully  laid  down  on  institutional  lines,  was 
largely  the  work  of  Southerners,  who  had  migrated 
to  the  Free-States  of  the  North- West.  Of  course 
there  was  anti-slavery  ism,  strong,  yea,  rabid  in 
the  old  States  of  the  North-East,  but  it  had  not 
the  same  tendency  to  show  an  unfailing  regard  for 
Union  and  Constitution,  and  could  never  have 
gained  the  battle  for  freedom. 

The  transition  from  the  Anti-Nebraska  up 
heaval,  based  mainly  upon  a  negative,  as  we  see  in 
its  name,  to  the  Republican  party,  based  upon  an 
affirmative,  as  we  see  in  its  chief  doctrine  of  ter 
ritorial  freedom,  seems  to  have  been  largely  the 


THE  PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  (1856)      375 

work  of  Lincoln.  Other  distinguished  men  un 
doubtedly  co-operated  in  Illinois  and  elsewhere, 
and  the  new  party  was  the  outcome  of  a  great 
popular  movement;  still  Lincoln  stands  pre-emi 
nent  as  its  organizer.  And  so  solid  was  its  or 
ganization  that  it  resisted  all  the  subtle  efforts  of 
Douglas  at  a  later  time  to  breach  it  in  Illinois, 
though  he  had  astonishing  success  in  other  States 
than  his  own,  particularly  in  the  East.  We  have 
to  infer  that  the  best  leadership  of  the  young  party 
showed  itself  in  the  West,  and  its  leader  there  was 
Lincoln.  The  Bloomington  Convention  of  1856, 
with  its  "Lost  Speech,"  is,  therefore,  a  pivotal 
event  in  the  history  of  the  party,  which  now  is 
planned  and  directed  on  lines  that  will  ultimately 
lead  it  to  victory.  We  are  to  see  that  Lincoln 
organized  the  political  forces  and  formulated  the 
political  doctrines  which  finally  carried  him  into 
the  Presidency.  It  is  not  said  that  he  was  the 
first  to  start  them,  for  they  bubbled  up  spon 
taneously  almost  everywhere  in  the  North  from 
the  depths  of  mightily  agitated  Folk-Soul.  But 
he  had  a  chief  hand  in  shaping  them  unto  the  ful 
filment  of  their  end,  and  then  took,  or  rather  had 
to  take,  the  leadership. 

II. 

The  Presidential  Campaign  (1856). 
In  the  Democratic  Convention  of  1856,  the  strik 
ing  fact  is  that  the  South  rejects,  has  to  reject,  its 


376       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

two  chief  Northern  supporters.  Pierce,  during  his 
Administration,  had  certainly  manifested  his 
friendliness,  if  not  his  subserviency,  to  the  South 
erners;  but  his  policy  had  lost  him  the  North,  and 
he  could  not  have  been  re-elected.  Besides,  he 
had  shown  himself  weak-willed — a  defect  which 
the  People  despise  in  an  Executive.  But  how 
about  Douglas  who  had  certainly  no  lack  of  will 
power?  He  has  to  be  rejected  also  by  those  for 
whose  sake  he  has  sacrificed  his  popularity  in  his 
own  State  and  in  the  whole  North.  On  the  first 
ballot  he  received  only  fourteen  votes  from  his 
Southern  supporters.  Very  doubtful  seemed  his 
election  if  nominated.  And  not  a  few  Southerners 
suspected  him ;  he  had  already  emphasized  strongly 
the  doctrine  that  the  People  of  a  territory  must 
determine  whether  they  will  have  slavery  or  not — 
a  doctrine  not  agreeable  to  the  extremists  of  the 
South.  Douglas  could  not  help  feeling  the  sting 
of  ingratitude  when  he  saw  that  his  very  cham 
pionship  of  the  Southrons  and  their  cause,  was 
what  made  them  throw  him  overboard,  as  unavail 
able  in  his  own  section.  The  stress  being  upon  a 
negative  availability,  the  nomination  fell  to  James 
Buchanan  of  Pennsylvania,  who  had  been  out  of 
the  country  during  the  Kansas  trouble,  as  minis 
ter  to  England.  He  had  not  taken  sides,  but  the 
South  evidently  knew  their  man,  and  took  care 
that  they  knew  him.  He  had  less  will  even  than 
Pierce;  indeed,  he  must  be  pronounced  the  most 


THE  PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  (1856).    377 

will-less  Executive  (really  a  contradiction  in  terms), 
that  ever  occupied  the  Presidential  chair.  As  a 
counterpart  to  him  the  Republican  Convention 
nominated  John  C.  Fremont,  then  an  unknown 
man  as  regards  character  or  fitness  for  the  position 
of  President. 

As  the  candidates  represented  almost  nothing 
personally,  the  two  platforms  furnished  the  fight 
ing-ground  for  the  campaign.  It  was  thus  a  con 
flict  of  principles,  each  party  had  to  explain  before 
the  people  the  reason  of  its  existence.  On  the 
whole  the  Democratic  may  be  called  a  Douglas 
platform,  re-affirming  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  and  the  non-interference  of  Congress 
in  the  Territories.  And  the  idea  of  Popular  Sov 
ereignty  seems  to  dominate  the  resolution  which 
declares  that  the  People  of  all  the  Territories  have 
the  right  "to  form  a  Constitution  with  or  without 
domestic  slavery,"  and  it  is  to  be  formed  "through 
the  legally  and  fairly  expressed  will  of  the  actual 
residents."  But  here  rose  the  ambiguity:  Douglas 
and  the  Democratic  Administration  thought  that 
the  Missourians,  having  seized  the  legal  ma 
chinery,  represented  "the  legally  and  fairly  ex 
pressed  will  of  the  actual  residents."  But  how 
ever  interpreted  in  this  matter,  the  platform  as  a 
whole,  maintained  the  Federal  Union  to  be  two 
fold  still — Slave-State  producing  and  Free-State 
producing,  as  it  undoubtedly  had  been  in  the  past. 

The  essential  thing  in  the  Republican  platform 


378        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

was  the  declaration  that  Congress  could  and  ought 
to  prevent  the  spread  of  slavery  into  the  Territo 
ries,  all  of  which,  and  not  merely  Kansas,  should 
become  Free-States.  This  is  Kansas  made  univer 
sal,  or  at  least  national.  Hence  the  campaign 
slogan  of  the  new  party  was,  Freedom  is  national, 
Slavery  is  sectional.  To  this  was  retorted  with 
effect  that  the  new  party,  having  practically  no 
existence  in  the  South,  was  itself  sectional.  Thus 
there  came  about  the  peculiar  political  cross-fire  of 
the  two  sides  in  which  a  sectional  party  main 
tained  a  national  principle,  and  a  national  party 
maintained  a  sectional  principle. 

Breaking  out  of  this  confounding  sport  of 
phrases,  we  can  see  distinctly  that  the  Republican 
party  now  affirms  for  its  basic  doctrine  that  the 
Federal  Union,  as  genetic,  must  be  henceforth 
Free-State  producing  only.  Undoubtedly  this  prin 
ciple  had  been  often  before  enounced,  especially 
as  a  third-party  doctrine;  but  now  it  is  backed  by 
one  of  the  two  great  political  parties  and  has  an 
outlook  upon  realization.  We  may,  therefore, 
consider  it  a  great  new  step  in  .advance,  really  a 
new  view  of  the  Union,  compared  with  former 
platforms  of  the  two  leading  parties.  That  which 
individuals  and  smaller  political  bodies  had  long 
since  uttered,  at  present  gets  organized  in  one  of 
the  larger  parties — an  event  truly  epochal,  just  at 
this  time  brought  to  the  surface  chiefly  by  the 
Kansas  conflict.  Thus  the  Republican  platform 


THE  PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  (1856).    379 

of  1856  has  in  it  a  progressive  evolutionary  ele 
ment;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Democratic 
platform  clings  essentially  to  the  old  view  of  the 
Union  as  dualistic,  as  productive  of  both  Slave- 
States  and  Free-States. 

The  Republican  doctrine  substantially  takes 
away  the  politically  creative  power  of  the  South, 
which  is  to  produce  no  more  States  of  its  own  kind. 
The  Southerners  naturally  regarded  this  doctrine 
as  assailing  their  equality  in  the  Union,  since  it 
deprived  them  of  their  participation  in  the  produc 
tion  of  new  States,  which  is  really  the  deepest  and 
most  unique  activity  of  the  American  form  of  Gov 
ernment.  Now  it  was  this  doctrine  of  restriction 
put  upon  the  South  that  forced  it  to  the  opposite 
doctrine,  which  seeks  to  keep  it  State-producing, 
as  creative  of  at  least  its  share  of  States.  Hence, 
the  Southerners  started  to  insist  upon  the  protec 
tion  of  slaves  as  property  in  the  Territories ;  thus 
slavery  would  have  an  equal,  if  not  better  chance 
of  making  them  Slave-States.  It  was  at  this  point 
that  the  South  began  to  distrust  Douglas  for  his 
doctrine  of  Popular  Sovereignty,  which  allowed 
the  people  to  settle  this  question  of  State-produc 
tion. 

Here  too  we  may  note  that  the  Republican  doc 
trine  has  its  limitation .  It  did  not  touch  the  already 
existent  Slave-States,  and  seek  to  make  them 
Free-States.  The  Federal  Union,  if  it  is  to  be 
universally  Free-State  producing,  cannot  stop  with 


380       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

the  Territories.  And  a  true  principle  will  render 
itself  universal— which  result  the  war  brought 
about,  making  also  the  former  Slave-States  over 
into  Free-States.  And  this  is  what  Lincoln  saw 
and  asserted  when  he  declared  that  this  Nation 
cannot  remain  half-and-half,  but  must  become  all 
one  thing  or  the  other;  freedom  or  slavery  must 
universalize  itself,  and  Lincoln,  as  all  now  see, 
was  to  be  the  chief  instrument  of  such  universal- 
ization. 

But  this  is  not  yet,  though  certainly  on  the 
road.  Buchanan,  the  Democratic  candidate  was 
elected,  getting  174  electoral  votes  to  Fremont's 
114,  while  the  third  candidate  Fillmore  won  but 
a  single  State,  Maryland.  Noteworthy  is  it  that 
the  North  went  overwhelmingly  with  the  Repub 
licans,  the  South  even  more  overwhelmingly  with 
the  Democrats.  Very  plainly  does  the  election 
show  the  breach  in  the  Nation.  Still  the  Nation 
as  a  whole  declares  that  it  is  double,  yea  cre 
atively  double.  So  the  South  understands  the 
situation,  and  backed  by  another  four  years'  ad 
ministration,  proceeds  anew  to  make  a  Slave-State 
out  of  Kansas.  The  territorial  troubles,  quiescent 
during  the  Presidential  canvas,  begin  to  flame 
up  again  with  fresh  energy,  undoubtedly  insti 
gated  from  Washington.  For  the  South  cannot 
surrender  its  fundamental  right  in  the  Union, 
namely  to  produce  States  of  its  own  kind.  The 
equality  of  the  Sections  is  gone  if  the  North  alone 


THE  DEED  SCOTT  DECISION.  381 

possesses  the  reproductive  power  of  the  Nation. 
This  is  really  the  struggle,  now  renewed  with 
fresh  desperation. 

At  the  same  time,  as  a  prelude  of  its  revived 
purpose,  the  South  flings  a  bomb  which  had  for  a 
while  the  effect  of  dazing  the  whole  North,  the 
Chief-Justice  of  the  United  States  in  this  case 
being  the  individual  bomb-thrower.  Already  the 
legislative  and  executive  Powers  of  Government 
had  been  wielded  against  free  Kansas;  next  the 
third  Power,  the  judicial,  is  brought  to  the  front 
to  do  its  part  to  the  same  end. 

III. 

The   Dred  Scott  Decision. 

And  now  is  delivered  the  third  great  blow  of 
the  decade  in  favor  of  the  Slave-power — the  decis 
ion  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  case  of  Dred 
Scott — the  other  two  blows  being  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise  and  the  election  of  a 
Democratic  President.  Again  Lincoln  will  be 
deeply  aroused,  and  he  will  advance  to  meet 
Douglas  as  the  defender  of  Judge  Taney. 

Two  days  after  the  inauguration  of  Buchanan 
the  decision  was  rendered,  which  affirmed,  among 
other  matters,  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  of 
1820  was  unconstitutional,  Congress  having  no 
power  to  pass  it,  or  indeed  to  prohibit  slavery  in 
the  Territories.  Thus  the  chief  doctrine  of  the 


382        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Republican  party  was  put  under  the  ban  of  law 
by  the  highest  Tribunal  of  the  land.  Nay  the 
doctrine  of  Popular  Sovereignty  was  undermined 
by  the  decision,  since  the  people  of  a  Territory, 
just  as  little  as  Congress,  could  keep  slavery  out 
of  the  Territories.  Still  Douglas  warmly  sup 
ported  the  decision  and  attempted  to  reconcile  it 
with  his  peculiar  doctrine,  even  putting  on  an  air 
of  triumph.  Again  the  Northern  Folk-Soul  feels 
the  stab  and  is  roused  to  renewed  anti-slavery  ex 
citement.  Douglas  once  more  hastens  home,  and 
at  the  Capital  of  Illinois  makes  a  speech,  not  only 
defending  the  decision,  but  also  seeking  to  blacken 
all  who  oppose  it  as  law-breakers  and  revolution 
ists,  as  "enemies  of  the  Constitution  and  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  laws."  In  this  way  he  hopes  to 
make  the  Republican  party  an  illegal  organiza 
tion,  which  should  not  only  not  be  tolerated  but 
punished. 

Of  course  such  a  challenge  calls  out  his  antag 
onist,  Lincoln,  who  now  comes  to  the  front  with  a 
speech  (Springfield,  June  26th,  1857),  replying  to 
that  of  Douglas.  Says  he:  "We  think  the  Dred 
Scott  decision  erroneous.  We  know  the  court 
that  made  it  has  often  overruled  its  own  decis 
ions,  and  we  shall  do  what  we  can  to  have  it 
overrule  this."  At  the  same  time  "we  offer  no 
resistance  to  it.  .  .  .  Who  resists  it?  Who 
has,  in  spite  of  the  decision,  declared  Dred  Scott 
free,  and  resisted  the  authority  of  the  master 


THE  DRED  SCOTT  DECISION.  383 

over  him?"  In  all  of  which  Lincoln  shows  him 
self  the  institutional  man  who  does  not  permit  his 
moral  indignation  to  turn  him  into  a  revolution 
ist.  The  Dred  Scott  decision  ought  to  be  re 
versed,  but  this  must  be  done  in  a  constitutional 
way. 

Douglas  had  tried  in  his  speech  to  make  it  ap 
pear  that  all  who  questioned  the  correctness  of  the 
decision,  were  resisting  it  by  violence.  At  this 
point  Lincoln  turns  Douglas  against  Douglas  by 
showing  that  the  latter  had  denounced  the  decis 
ion  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  favor  of  the  United 
States  bank.  "Again  and  again  have  I  heard 
Judge  Douglas  denounce  that  bank  decision  and 
applaud  General  Jackson  for  disregarding  it.  It 
would  be  interesting  for  him  to  look  over  his  re 
cent  speech  and  see  how  exactly  his  fierce  philip 
pics  against  us  fall  on  his  head."  Here  Lincoln 
is  truly  dialetical,  he  makes  Douglas  undo  Douglas, 
and  shows  that  the  latter,  judged  by  his  present 
standard,  once  "fought  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemies 
of  the  Constitution/'  which  is  the  reproach  he  tries 
to  fasten  upon  Lincoln  and  others. 

With  equal  skill  the  speaker  makes  his  antag 
onist  fight  himself,  and  indeed  annul  himself  in 
regard  to  the  argument  upon  amalgation.  Per 
haps  the  most  interesting  paragraph  of  the  speech 
now  is  that  he  singles  out  Douglas  as  his  future 
competitor.  "Three  years  and  a  half  ago,"  says 
he,  "Judge  Douglas  brought  forward  his  famous 


384        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Nebraska  bill.  The  country  was  at  once  in  a 
blaze.  .  .  Since  then  he  has  seen  himself  su 
perseded  in  a  Presidential  nomination  .  .  . 
and  he  has  seen  that  rival  constitutionally  elected, 
not  by  the  strength  of  his  friends  but  by  the  di 
vision  of  adversaries,  being  in  a  popular  minority 
of  nearly  four  hundred  thousand  votes.  He  has 
seen  his  chief  aids  in  his  own  State,  Shields  and 
Richardson,  politically  speaking,  successively  tried, 
condemned,  and  executed,  for  an  offense  not  their 
own,  but  his.  And  now  he  sees  his  own  case  stand 
ing  next  on  the  docket  for  trial." 

Who  is  to  be  the  prosecutor  of  Douglas  in  this 
great  political  trial?  Evidently  Lincoln  himself, 
who  now  looks  forward  to  it  with  a  sort  of  tri 
umphant  delight.  The  allusion  is  to  the  contest 
for  Senatorship  which  is  to  take  place  the  coming 
year,  before  the  People  as  Supreme  Judge.  The 
two  life-long  adversaries  are  to  be  brought  to 
gether  in  their  pivotal  contest,  whose  prize  is  loom 
ing  up  hazily  in  the  distance  as  something  far 
greater  than  the  Illinois  Senatorship.  Already 
Lincoln  has  aligned  his  party  in  the  State,  and 
put  himself  at  its  head  ready  for  the  charge.  We 
can  almost  see  him  in  this  speech  flashing  his 
sword  and  shaking  it  defiantly  at  his  antagonist. 
He  is  now  conscious  that  the  Folk-Soul  is  with 
him,  and  that  he  is  its  voice  and  its  leader  against 
its  favorite  who  has  lost  touch  with  it. 

Douglas  was  well  aware  of   the  situation.    The 


THE  DEED  SCOTT  DECISION.  385 

astute  politician  could  not  help  seeing  which  way 
the  wind  was  blowing,  and  casting  about  to  catch 
some  of  it  in  his  own  sails.  Besides,  he  had  his 
deep,  though  secret  grudge  against  the  Southern 
wing  of  his  own  party  which  had  so  ungratefully 
thrown  him  overboard  at  Cincinnati.  He  must 
also  have  seen  by  his  visit  to  Illinois  that  the  Dred 
Scott  decision  was  not  going  to  destroy  the  Re 
publican  party,  but  to  nerve  it  to  new  and 
stronger  endeavor.  The  opportunity  comes  not 
only  for  paying  back  an  old  score,  but  for  adjust 
ing  himself  anew  with  the  North,  which  he  had  so 
deeply  alienated.  But  that  comes  later. 

It  should  be  stated  that  Douglas  in  this  Spring 
field  speech,  distinctly  enounces  that  which  was 
afterward  known  as  his  Freeport  doctrine,  and 
which  is  supposed  to  have  lost  him  the  South.  He 
had  the  very  difficult  task  of  reconciling  his 
Squatter  Sovereignty  with  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 
"A  master's  right  to  his  slave  in  that  Territory 
(Kansas)  continues  in  full  force  under  the  guaran 
tees  of  the  Constitution,  and  cannot  be  divested 
or  alienated  by  an  act  of  Congress;"  still,  in  spite 
of  this  "it  necessarily  remains  a  barren  and  worth 
less  right  unless  sustained,  protected,  and  enforced 
by  appropriate  police  regulations  and  local  legisla 
tion  prescribing  adequate  remedies  for  its  viola 
tion."  And  such  legislation  "depends  upon  the 
people  of  the  Territory,"  and  so  it  comes  that 
"the  great  principle  of  Popular  Sovereignty  is  sus- 

25 


386       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

tained  and  firmly  established  by  this  decision"  of 
Judge  Taney,  who  undoubtedly  intended  just  the 
opposite. 

Of  course  the  true  inference  here  is  just  the  re 
verse  of  that  which  Douglas  draws,  and  Lincoln 
grips  him  in  the  retort  that  such  a  doctrine  must 
hold  "that  a  thing  may  lawfully  be  driven  away 
from  a  place  where  it  has  a  lawful  right  to  be." 
Douglas  felt  that  he  must  keep  the  Anti-Nebraska 
democrats  in  his  fold  if  he  ever  wished  to  return 
to  the  United  States  Senate.  So  he  quiets  their 
apprehensions  by  telling  them  that  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  is  good  law,  but  it  can  be  easily  circum 
vented  by  my  little  device  known  as  Squatter 
Sovereignty,  which  Lincoln  calls  a  humbug.  The 
question  will  arise,  Did  Douglas  believe  his  own 
reasoning?  Certainly  he  affirms  a  contradiction: 
the  right  of  the  formal  law  to  unquestioned  obe 
dience  and  the  right  to  make  it  inoperative  and 
null.  So  Douglas  has  primarily  breached  himself; 
his  own  doctrine  is  dual,  having  a  Northern  and  a 
Southern  side ;  in  Kansas  it  favors  the  Slave-State, 
yet  at  the  same  time  it  gives  a  quick  turn  and 
favors  the  Free-State.  Surely  Douglas  has  become 
double  like  the  Double  Nation;  his  very  conscious 
ness  is  twofold  and  contradictory.  Thus  he  seems 
a  kind  of  embodied  duplicity,  having  been  assimi 
lated  to  that  Janus-faced  God  of  his,  Squatter  Sov 
ereignty. 

By  way  of  contrast  we  can  see  Lincoln  now  at 


DEMOCRACY  BREACHED.  387 

one  with  himself,  having  risen  out  of  his  dualism 
through  the  long  discipline  of  his  Subsidence  al 
ready  portrayed.  But  Douglas  has  really  breached 
himself  in  his  support  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision; 
behold  Lincoln,  his  antitype,  standing  up  at 
Springfield  and  pointing  out  the  fact  to  the  people . 
But  Douglas  cannot  stop  with  this  act,  so  here  fol 
lows  the  next. 

IV. 

Democracy  breached. 

Who  did  it?  Douglas.  He  had  already  caused 
the  great  breach  between  the  North  and  the  South 
by  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise;  he  now 
breaches  the  Democratic  party  itself,  hitherto 
united,  calling  forth  in  it  a  Northern  wing  and  a 
Southern.  Thus  disunion  has  entered  and  split 
the  party  of  the  Double  Union,  which  means  at 
bottom  national  Disunion. 

The  occasion  was  again  Kansas,  upon  which  the 
Administration  and  the  South,  encouraged  by  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  resolved  afresh  to  foist  sla 
very  against  the  will  of  the  people.  The  Lecomp- 
ton  scheme  was  hatched  for  this  purpose.  Doug 
las  saw  his  chance  and  declared  his  opposition 
already  at  his  home  in  Illinois.  When  he  reached 
Washington  for  the  opening  of  Congress  in  De 
cember,  1857,  he  went  to  the  President,  to  whom 
he  declared  that  he  should  denounce  the  scheme 
in  the  Senate.  Buchanan  in  a  fit  of  wrath  rose 


388       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

and  said:  "Mr.  Douglas,  I  desire  you  to  remember 
that  no  Democrat  ever  differed  from  an  adminis 
tration  of  his  own  choice  without  being  crushed. 
Beware  of  the  fate  of  Tallmadge  and  Rives." 
Whereat  Douglas  also  rose  in  opposition  and  re 
plied:  "Mr.  President,  I  wish  you  to  remember 
that  General  Jackson  is  dead."  A  piercing  and 
defiant  response,  with  a  sting  in  it  too,  which  lay 
in  the  contemptuous  contrast  between  the  weakest- 
willed  President  that  was  ever  in  the  White  House, 
and  the  strongest-willed  one,  yea  sometimes  head 
strong.  On  the  9th  of  December  Douglas  backed 
up  his  words  outside  by  an  equally  daring  speech 
in  the  Senate,  in  which  speech  he  seems  to  see  for 
the  first  time  the  real  situation  in  Kansas.  Great 
praise  he  won  from  the  Republicans,  especially 
from  the  Eastern  Press,  which  began  to  hail  him 
as  the  new  leader.  But  Douglas  still  was  Douglas 
with  his  Popular  Sovereignty  and  his  non-inter 
vention  of  Congress.  Says  he:  "If  Kansas  wants 
a  Slave-State  Constitution,  she  has  a  right  to  it; 
if  she  wants  a  Free-State  Constitution  she  has  a 
right  to  it;  it  is  none  of  my  business  which  way 
the  slavery  clause  is  decided.  I  care  not  whether 
it  is  voted  down  or  voted  up." 

The  attitude  taken  in  this  last  sentence  was  the 
grand  fatality  of  Douglas .  On  account  of  his  in 
difference  he  became  equally  objectionable  to  the 
men  of  conviction  both  in  the  North  and  the 
South,  to  those  who  disbelieved  in  slavery  as  well 


DEMOCRACY  BREACHED.  389 

as  to  those  who  believed  in  it.  And  there  were 
many  Douglas  Democrats,  especially  in  the 
North,  who  did  not  relish  such  cynicism  on  the 
great  moral  question  of  the  age.  Particularly  in 
Kansas  would  such  an  expression  fall  with  a 
shock,  since  at  this  time  a  majority  of  the  fighting 
Free-State  men  were  Douglas  Democrats .  Imagine 
their  chill  when  they  hear  that  what  they  care 
most  about,  their  leader  does  not  care  about  at 
all.  Really  has  not  Douglas  eliminated  himself 
from  the  grand  struggle  of  the  time?  He  does 
not  care  whether  this  Federal  Union  shall  be  pro 
ductive  of  Free-States  or  Slave-States — the  very 
problem  which  Civilization  or  the  World-Spirit  has 
called  up  for  solution,  and  which  is  fermenting 
deeply  in  the  Folk-Soul.  At  this  weakest  spot  in 
Douglas  Lincoln  will  not  fail  to  thrust  his  spear 
with  telling  effect  before  the  assembled  People  in 
the  coming  debate. 

It  is  evident  that  three  parties  have  begun  to 
appear  and  are  putting  themselves  in  shape  for 
the  future.  These  we  may  set  down  as  follows: 

1.  The  Southern  (Democratic)  which  says  more 
Slave-States;  the  Nation  must  be  Slave-State  pro 
ducing  also. 

2.  The  Northern  (Republican)   which  says  no 
more  Slave-States ;  the  Nation  must  be  Free-State 
producing  only. 

3.  Douglas  (Democratic)  which  says  the  Nation 
may  be  either,  or  rather  should  be  neither;  let  the 


390       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

people  of  the  given  territory  settle  the  matter 
among  themselves,  and  let  the  Nation  dismiss  the 
vexatious  question.  Thus  Douglas  tries  to  avoid 
the  world-historical  issue  of  the  age,  or  perchance 
to  circumvent  the  World-Spirit  by  a  political  de 
vice,  the  cunning  fellow!  Lincoln,  on  the  con 
trary,  will  voice  that  World-Spirit  to  the  yeomanry 
of  Illinois,  so  that  the  whole  Nation  will  hear  it, 
in  its  judgment  of  Douglas. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Northern  (Republican) 
and  the  Southern  (Democratic)  parties  have  one 
important  tenet  in  common:  both  maintain  the 
central  supervision  of  Congress  over  the  territo 
ries.  Douglas  on  the  contrary  would  cut  off  all 
intervention  from  the  National  Legislature;  thus 
he  practically  denies  the  Union  to  be  State-pro 
ducing,  and  does  away  with  its  genetic  function, 
really  the  deepest  of  all  its  functions.  The  scat 
tered  settlers  or  squatters  are  supposed  to  be  alone 
capable  of  State- making,  that  is,  of  the  supreme 
governmental  act,  and  not  Congress,  though  this 
is  often  imagined  to  be  the  collective  political 
wisdom  of  all  the  States.  Against  such  an  abdication 
of  national  power  and  duty,  both  the  anti-slavery 
and  the  pro-slavery  parties  took  decided  position. 
But  with  his  device  as  a  weapon  Douglas  has 
breached  his  own  party,  the  Democratic,  into  a 
Northern  and  Southern  half,  truly  a  feat  of  gigan 
tic  mightiness. 

Let  it  be  said,  however,  that  this  separation  lay 


DEMOCRACY  BREACHED.       391 

deep  in  the  party  itself  and  also  in  the  man  him 
self.  The  Democracy  of  the  Free-States  could 
hardly  be  called  pro-slavery,  and  the  time  had 
come  when  slavery  was  demanding  a  belief  in  itself 
as  morally  right.  It  would  no  longer  endure  in 
difference  even,  but  required  a  confession  of  faith 
in  its  eternal  justice  and  goodness  from  the  party 
which  is  supported.  Herein  lurked  the  possibility 
of  a  breach  between  the  Northern  and  Southern 
Democracy. 

And  now  the  breacher  appears  with  his  doctrine 
of  "Don't  care."  But  the  deeper  fact  is  that  this 
breacher  Douglas  is  himself  breached  by  his  own 
principle  of  Popular  Sovereignty,  whose  object  is 
to  balk  the  very  law  which  he  says  must  be 
obeyed .  He  decries  any  man  who  denounces  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  as  a  revolutionist,  but  he  tells 
how  to  thwart  it  by  his  doctrine.  Thus  Douglas 
is  inwardly  dual  like  his  party;  indeed  he  realizes 
his  own  dualism  in  his  party,  and  makes  it,  as  it 
were,  an  image  of  himself.  Yea,  the  Nation  shows 
a  similar  scission,  so  that  Douglas  now  is  in  a  pro 
found  sense  the  National  representative  of  the 
time.  Herein  Lincoln  is  again  his  other  Self,  his 
antitype,  who  having  made  himself  a  unity  within 
out  of  dualism,  is  to  make  the  Nation  a  unity,  and 
even  is  to  unite  Douglas,  who  is  at  last  to  be  re 
deemed  from  his  scission. 

But  not  yet  for  several  years.  Douglas  is  still 
in  the  height  of  his  breaching  period,  and  has  not 


392       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

been  halted;  he  is  the  very  genius  of  division, 
having  divided  North  and  South  into  two  antago 
nistic  halves  of  the  whole  Union  by  his  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  now  he  has  divided 
his  own  party,  the  Democratic  into  a  Northern 
and  Southern  branch.  But  just  see  the  Titanic 
audacity  of  the  breacher!  he  has  actually  begun  to 
breach  his  opponents,  the  Republicans.  Who  can 
stop  him? 

V. 
Republicanism  not  breached. 

It  has  been  already  noted  that  Douglas  began  to 
break  with  his  party  on  the  issue  of  the  Lecomp- 
ton  Constitution,  and  to  vote  with  the  Republi 
cans  in  favor  of  free  Kansas  during  the  Congres 
sional  session  of  1857-8.  He  even  voted  against 
the  English  bill,  a  sort  of  hybrid  Democratic  meas 
ure  which  sought  to  purchase  from  the  Kansans 
their  Free-State  principle  by  an  offer  of  immediate 
Statehood  and  by  a  gift  of  land.  This  was  the 
supreme  point  of  his  open  approach  to  Republi 
canism  .  And  secretly  he  was  at  this  time  consult 
ing  with  the  leading  members  of  the  Republican 
party  in  Congress  and  winning  them  to  his  view. 
His  line  of  argument  seems  to  have  run  in  this 
wise:  "Do  you  not  see  the  real  effect  of  my  Repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise?  All  the  territories 
south  of  that  line  are  now  open  to  freedom,  not 
merely  those  north  of  it,  like  Kansas.  The 


REPUBLICANISM  NOT  BREACHED  393 

fact  is,  I  am  the  true  practical  Republican,  who 
has  really  taken  away  from  the  Southerners  the 
lands  which  would  otherwise  have  fallen  to  their 
share.  And  many  of  them  see  it  and  are  denounc 
ing  me  in  the  Senate.  Still  I  must  not  quit  my 
party,  but  must  stay  in  it  and  keep  my  followers 
together;  thus  I  can  do  more  effectual  service." 
The  argument  was  valid.  Douglas  had  come  to 
see  that  the  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 
was  turning  out  just  the  opposite  of  what  he  and 
its  original  supporters  intended.  He  had  began  to 
glimpse  the  irony  of  the  World-Spirit  of  which  he, 
as  well  as  the  Republican  Senators,  had  hitherto 
been  the  sport,  being  led  to  promote  the  reverse  of 
what  they  had  at  first  purposed.  For  Douglas 
and  his  pro-slavery  supporters  in  the  Repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise  had  done  that  which 
undid  them,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  great  anti- 
slavery  orators,  Chase,  Sumner,  Seward  had  bit 
terly  assailed  and  voted  against  the  very  act 
which  conferred  the  greatest  boon  upon  them  and 
their  party.  Douglas  now  begins  to  see — he  did 
not  see  at  the  start — the  peculiar  contradictory 
working  of  his  own  bill,  as  it  turns  out  an  anti- 
slavery  instead  of  a  pro-slavery  measure.  More 
over  he  is  going  to  take  the  credit  for  its  secret 
anti-slavery  ism,  having  been  shamefully  cast  off 
by  the  Southerners  in  the  Democratic  Convention 
of  1856,  in  spite  of  his  blandishments  and  services. 
So  Douglas  has  the  insight  to  catch  the  drift  of 


394        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

the  time,  to  feel  the  subtle  irony  of  the  World- 
Spirit,  in  accord  with  which  he  must  make  a  new 
adjustment. 

We  cannot,  however,  believe  that  Douglas  ever 
intended  to  become  a  Republican.  But  in  the 
new  turn  of  political  events,  he  thought  he  saw  a 
way  of  attaching  the  Republicans  or  a  part  of 
them,  to  the  tail  of  his  Presidential  kite,  as  Lincoln 
said.  He  knew  that  through  the  Democracy 
united,  he  could  never  be  chief  magistrate.  So  he 
has  breached  his  own  party;  and  if  he  can  breach 
the  Republican  party  and  get  one  portion  of  it,  he 
may  be  able  to  weld  it  to  his  Democratic  frag 
ment  and  float  on  this  new  co-alition  into  the  Pres 
idency.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  su 
preme  political  aim  of  Douglas  in  1858  was  to 
breach  the  Republican  party.  We  have  already 
marked  his  peculiar  demiurgic  power  of  sundering 
what  lay  opposed  to  him  during  this  period.  Can 
he  rend  Republicanism  as  he  has  rent  the  Democ 
racy?  This  we  shall  find  to  be  his  deepest  motive 
in  the  great  Debate  with  Lincoln  in  1858;  if  he 
can  cleave  atwain  these  new  foes,  he  sees  himself 
riding  triumphantly  into  the  coming  Senatorship, 
and  why  not  into  the  Presidency? 

And  the  likelihood  seems  not  remote,  for  see 
what  a  spell  the  enchanter  has  cast  upon  the  eyes 
of  champions  hitherto  most  hostile  to  him  and  his 
doctrine!  The  whole  bottom  of  the  Republican 
party  threatens  to  drop  out,  and  a  portion  of  it 


REPUBLICANISM  NOT  BREACHED.         395 

does  get  seriously  breached  by  the  subtle  arts  of 
the  demonic  breacher  of  political  parties,  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  now  at  the  flower  of  his  negative 
might.  In  the  East  and  in  Congress  a  number  of 
influential  Republicans  thought  of  taking  him  up 
as  their  leader,  and  of  adopting  his  doctrine. 
Prominent  newspapers  started  to  agitate  in  the 
same  direction.  It  was  suggested  that  the  Re 
publicans  of  Illinois  help  re-elect  Douglas  as  Sen 
ator  in  1858.  Particularly  Greeley  in  his  New 
York  Tribune  advocated  this  scheme,  which  meant 
an  abandonment  of  the  Republican  principle. 
Seward  probably  leaned  the  same  way  for  a  time, 
though  the  dexterous  politician  kept  shy  of  any 
public  utterance.  His  supposed  organ,  the  New 
York  Times,  was,  however,  outspoken  in  favor  of 
the  surrender.  This  was  probably  the  most  dan 
gerous  moment  in  the  entire  existence  of  the  Re 
publican  party,  which  had  fought  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  had  outlived  the  defeat  of 
1856,  had  risen  up  to  new  life  under  the  stagger 
ing  blow  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Now  the 
arch-divider,  Douglas,  has  gotten  somehow  inside 
the  organization  and  is  preparing  to  divide  it  as 
he  has  divided  his  own  party  recently,  and  has 
divided  his  country  into  two  antagonistic  sections 
by  his  deed  of  1854. 

Will  he  succeed?  Just  at  this  critical  moment 
steps  forward  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the  Convention 
of  Illinois  Republicans  assembled  at  Springfield 


396       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

and  shouts  No!  in  commanding  tones  which  soon 
find  an  echo  throughout  the  North.  In  his  speech 
there  made  (June  16th,  1858),  he  exposes  the  vital 
difference  between  Republicanism  and  Douglas- 
ism.  No  "don't  care"  policy  for  us  here  in  this 
State;  and  he  winds  up  with  a  lofty  exhortation: 
"Our  cause  must  then  be  intrusted  to  and  con 
ducted  by  its  own  undoubted  friends — those  whose 
hands  are  free  and  whose  hearts  are  in  the  work, 
who  do  care  for  the  result." 

His  words  were  backed  enthusiastically  by  the 
Convention,  which  nominated  him  as  the  Republi 
can  candidate  for  United  States  Senator  in  the 
coming  campaign  against  Douglas.  In  a  number 
of  respects  this  act  of  Lincoln  and  of  his  faithful 
supporters  was  epoch-making.  It  saved  the  party 
from  a  split,  for  gradually  the  Easterners  began 
to  see  their  own  folly  and  to  fall  into  line.  Even 
Greeley  sullenly  yielded,  though  it  left  him  in  a 
sulk  which  he  never  got  over  during  the  rest  of 
Lincoln's  career,  not  even  during  the  latter's  Pres 
idency.  Indeed  Greeley  gave  himself  a  blow  from 
which  he  never  afterwards  fully  recovered.  But 
the  main  fact  is  that  this  episode  transfers  the 
seat  of  authority  in  the  Republican  party  to  the 
West,  which,  under  Lincoln's  leadership,  had  re 
fused  to  be  cajoled  into  the  Armida  palace  of 
the  subtle  magician,  there  to  be  blown  to 
pieces.  Lincoln,  though  unconscious  probably  of 
any  such  purpose,  had  made  himself  the  national 


REPUBLICANISM  NOT  BREACHED.         397 

leader,  having  vindicated  the  world-historical  mis 
sion  of  the  party,  which  the  Eastern  branch,  or  a 
leading  portion  of  it,  was  willing  to  sacrifice  on 
the  plea  of  expediency.  Lincoln  reaffirms  that  the 
Union  must  be  Free-State  producing  only — which 
Douglas  opposed  to  the  last. 

And  now  the  two  Giants  are  lined  up  for  the 
conflict  on  the  prairies  of  Illinois  in  the  presence 
of  the  people,  who  are  to  decide  the  issue  which  is 
really  their  own.  It  should  be  noted  that  it  takes 
the  form  of  a  Presidential  rather  than  a  Senatorial 
contest;  both  Lincoln  and  Douglas  are  practically 
nominated  beforehand  by  their  respective  parties ; 
the  State  Legislature  will  indeed  do  the  choosing 
of  the  Senator,  but  it  will  have  hardly  more  free 
dom  of  choice  than  the  Electoral  College  in  choos 
ing  the  President.  It  is,  therefore,  a  sort  of  pre 
liminary  Presidential  election  even  in  form  as  well 
as  in  significance;  though  confined  to  one  State,  it 
is  enacted  before  the  whole  United  States,  and  is 
felt  everywhere  to  be  a  national  matter.  No  other 
Senatorial  canvas  in  American  History  approaches 
it  in  interest  and  importance,  and  no  debate  in  the 
Senate  itself  by  the  great  orators  of  the  old  order 
ever  had  such  a  weighty  theme  or  such  a  far- 
reaching  purport. 

So  we  behold  our  two  life-long  antitypes  in  the 
bloom  of  their  powers  enter  upon  a  fresh  contest, 
appealing  to  the  Folk-Soul  in  personal  presence, 
and  trying  to  win  its  suffrage.  Each  is  seeking 


398       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

the  Senatorship  as  the  immediate  prize;  but  really 
each  is  striving  to  be  the  voice  of  the  future,  of 
the  Nation's  destiny,  of  the  World-Spirit.  Which 
will  win  that  far  higher  guerdon  whose  bestowal 
will  elevate  its  recipient  into  that  other  Senate 
composed  of  the  supreme  Great  Men  of  Universal 
History?  The  Folk-Soul  is  now  called  upon  to 
choose,  not  merely  a  Senator  of  the  United  States, 
but  a  much  more  adequate  and  exalted  represent 
ative  of  itself,  nothing  less  than  a  mediator  be 
tween  itself  and  the  World-Spirit.  Lincoln  again 
loses  the  chance  of  going  to  Washington  as  law 
maker  in  the  Upper  House,  but  wins  the  loftier 
position.  And  now  let  us  turn  to  him  and  listen, 
for  he  is  about  to  speak  the  pivotal  word  of  his 
whole  career,  and  indeed  of  his  Age. 

VI. 

Prelude  of  the  Lincolniad. 

If  it  were  possible  in  these  days  to  sing  an  epos 
with  Lincoln  as  hero,  it  might  well  begin  at 
the  latter's  contest  with  Douglas  for  the  national 
Senatorship  of  Illinois.  The  Muse,  leaving  to  one 
side  all  the  less  important  preliminaries  and  prep 
arations,  would  then  plunge  into  the  thick  of 
things  (in  medias  res),  or  rather  would  intone 
the  central  struggle,  typical,  yea  creative  of  those 
which  follow.  Such  a  Lincolniad,  having  gotten 
fairly  under  way,  could  not  well  stop  till  the 


PRELUDE  OF  THE  LINCOLNIAD.  399 

death  of  the  hero.  It  would  start,  if  not  with  a 
famous  quarrel,  at  least  with  a  famous  debate  be 
tween  the  two  leaders  on  the  Northern  side,  as  the 
Iliad  opens  with  a  furious  contest  of  speeches  on 
the  Greek  side  between  its  two  leaders,  Achilles 
and  Agamemnon.  But  as  before  those  divided 
Greeks  rises  the  far  deeper  problem  of  the  capture 
of  Troy  upon  which  they  will  be  united,  so  be 
fore  these  debating  Americans  on  the  Prairie 
comes  the  outlook  upon  a  far  deeper  problem, 
nothing  less  than  the  preservation  of  their  na 
tional  Union,  in  regard  to  which  they  will  be 
united.  In  both  songs,  however,  American  as  well 
as  Greek,  Helen  will  be  finally  restored,  but  only 
after  untold  woes,  in  which  many  a  soul  is  sent  to 
Hades,  and  the  will  of  Zeus  is  accomplished. 

The  life  of  the  modern  Great  Man,  however, 
calls  for  a  literary  vehicle  different  from  the  old 
epos,  though  the  main  function  of  the  latter  was 
also  to  set  forth  the  pivotal  deeds  of  the  hero  of 
his  People.  But  the  Iliad  is  not  a  biography  of 
Achilles,  even  if  its  object  be  to  give  the  weightiest 
moment  of  his  career,  and  to  portray  that 
mighty  inner  change  which  makes  him  truly  he 
roic,  and  concentrates  into  one  brilliant  action 
lasting  a  few  days  the  worth  of  his  whole  life. 
Our  biographic  Lincolniad  moves  not  that  way,  it 
seeks  to  bring  to  light  the  long,  dark,  fameless 
evolution  of  a  career  till  it  bursts  forth  into  its 
supreme  deed,  which  is  thus  in  a  measure  ac- 


400        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

counted  for,  being  seen  in  its  growth  from  germ  to 
bloom.  To  be  sure,  the  old  epos  did  not  fail  to 
throw  irregular  glances  back  into  the  early  life  of 
its  hero,  and  the  Iliad  in  one  long  scene  intro 
duces  Phoenix,  primal  pedagogue  to  the  boy 
Achilles,  who  is  thereby  briefly  seen  in  his  heroic 
budding. 

In  the  Lincolniad  also,  as  here  marked  out, 
there  is  a  prelude  or  proem  which  is  spoken  by  the 
hero  himself,  and  which  forecasts  the  entire  action 
to  the  close.  It  thus  gleams  with  a  golden  poetic 
vein  of  prophecy,  which  is  not  merely  the  fiction 
of  the  poet  telling  in  advance  the  course  of  fabled 
adventures,  but  the  man  of  the  deed  himself 
voicing  the  next  great  reality  of  the  World's  His 
tory.  To  our  mind  this  Prelude  is  the  weightiest 
word  ever  spoken  by  any  American  man,  of  what 
ever  station;  very  brief  it  is,  a  single  small  para 
graph,  but  it  is  freighted  with  the  burden  of  a 
new-born  world. 

Lincoln  has  now  reached  the  point  when  he 
must  give  utterance  to  the  Idea  which  has  been 
fermenting  so  long  in  his  soul.  Already  he  has 
often  expressed  it  in  private  to  his  friends:  This 
Nation  cannot  exist  half-slave  and  half-free.  In 
1856  it  is  reported  that  he  proposed  to  proclaim 
the  doctrine  in  a  speech  at  Bloomington,  but  was 
dissuaded  by  his  conservative  friend,  Judge 
Dickey.  But  in  1858  he  is  the  chosen  leader  of 
his  party,  and  he  resolves  to  base  his  contest  with 


PRELUDE  OF  THE  LINCOLN1AD.  401 

Douglas  upon  what  he  deems  the  deepest  political 
fact  of  the  time.  His  opportunity  comes  when  he 
has  to  address  the  Convention  which  has  nomi 
nated  him  for  Senator  against  Douglas  (June 
16th,  1885).  Moreover,  the  first  paragraph  which 
contains  those  memorable  sentences  already  al 
luded  to  as  the  Prelude  to  the  truly  heroic  part  of 
his  career,  shows  Lincoln  at  his  highest,  when  he 
gives  voice  to  the  future  and  unconsciously  out 
lines  his  own  supreme  vocation  in  the  coming  con 
flict.  The  whole  paragraph  may  well  be  cited 
(with  some  parenthetic  comments) ,  as  the  Prelude 
to  the  Lincolniad  now  starting,  if  not  to  sing,  at 
least  to  speak  in  an  exalted  prophetic  strain  what 
the  Gods  have  decreed. 

"Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: 
If  we  could  first  know  where  we  are  and  whither 
we  are  tending,  we  could  better  judge  what  to  do 
and  how  to  do  it.  (The  stress  of  the  speech  as  a 
whole  is  to  indicate  whither  we,  the  People,  are 
tending  in  the  slavery  question).  We  are  now  far 
into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy  was  initiated  with 
the  avowed  object  and  confident  promise  of  put 
ting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation  (the  policy  of  re 
pealing  the  Missouri  Compromise).  Under  the 
operation  of  that  policy,  that  agitation  has  not 
only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly  augmented. 
(Whither  is  it  tending?)  In  my  opinion  it  will  not 
cease  till  a  crisis  shall  have  been  reached  and  passed. 
(A  glimpse  or  presentiment,  one  thinks,  of  the 

26 


402        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

approaching  Civil  War).  'A  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand/  (This  popular  proverb  has 
given  title  to  the  speech,  as  it  sums  up  the  crisis). 

I  BELIEVE  THIS  GOVERNMENT  CANNOT  ENDURE 
PERMANENTLY  HALF-SLAVE  AND  HALF-FREE.  (The 

pointed  application  of  the  foregoing  proverb  to 
the  special  case  in  hand.  This  piercing  statement 
of  the  political  situation  expressed  the  rising  con 
viction  of  the  North,  and  has  since  been  adopted 
by  the  People  as  its  own  very  utterance  of  itself. 
In  this  single  sentence  we  may  hear  the  World- 
Spirit  speaking  through  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the 
Folk-Soul,  which  is  getting  ready  to  accept  it  as 
its  own,  and  to  carry  it  out,  for  there  is  in  it  an 
implied  command  to  overcome  the  division  so  that 
the  House  may  stand.  For  listen:)  I  do  not  ex 
pect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved,  I  do  not  expect 
the  House  to  fall,  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease 
to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or 
all  the  other.  (Thus  under  the  bitter  division  of 
the  time  Lincoln  sees  the  trend  toward  unity, 
toward  the  new  Union  which  will  eradicate  the 
acrid  and  ever-irritating  dualism  between  Slave- 
State  and  Free-State).  Either  the  opponents  of 
slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it  and 
place  it  where  the  Public  Mind  shall  rest  in 
the  belief  that  it  is  in  course  of  ultimate  extinc 
tion;  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it 
shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as 
well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South." 


PRELUDE  OF  THE  LINCOLNIAD.  403 

Such  is  what  we  deem  the  Prelude  of  the  Lin- 
colniad,  or  of  the  Epos  of  Lincoln,  not  fabulous 
by  any  means  but  historic,  enacted  through  the 
deed  itself  and  recorded  not  in  Hellenic  Olympian 
ideality,  but  in  American  terrestrial  reality.  Still 
this  Epos  of  the  solid  fact  bears  the  impress  of  a 
poetic  whole,  being  preluded  by  a  prophetic  strain 
which  prefigures  Lincoln's  work  in  its  full  circuit, 
till  the  assassin's  bullet  closes  his  career,  and  his 
task  of  making  this  Nation  "become  all  one 
thing"  and  not  the  other  thing,  is  practically  com 
plete.  The  half-and-halfness  of  the  old  order 
must  end,  and  end  in  the  right  way;  and  when  it 
ends,  Lincoln  himself  ends  with  it,  and  the  Epos 
concludes  in  the  death  of  individual  hero,  alas! 
but  in  the  triumph  of  his  cause,  and  in  the  ful 
filment  of  the  prophetic  Prelude. 

Certain  curious  facts  concerning  this  epochal 
speech  have  been  handed  down  by  Herndon,  who 
was  in  the  same  office  with  Lincoln  at  this  time. 
He  wrote  it  "on  stray  envelopes  and  scraps  of 
paper,  as  ideas  suggested  themselves,  putting 
them  into  that  miscellaneous  and  convenient  re 
ceptacle,  his  hat.  As  the  Convention  drew  near, 
he  copied  the  whole  on  connected  sheets,  carefully 
revising  every  line  and  sentence,  and  fastened 
them  together  for  convenience  during  the  delivery 
of  the  speech  and  for  publication."  So  we  im 
agine  our  Lincoln  walking  the  street  with  the 
great  problem  of  the  time  always  seething  in  him; 


404       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

suddenly  there  bubbles  up  from  the  unseen  depths 
the  right  thought  already  clothed  in  its  happiest 
expression;  he  stops  suddenly  just  there  as  if 
halted  by  his  own  Genius,  and  claps  his  hand  into 
his  pocket  for  an  old  letter  or  blank  leaf  of  paper 
on  which  he  transcribes  his  inspiration,  word  for 
word,  as  whispered  directly  from  the  lips  of  the 
Muse.  Then  behold  him  taking  off  that  high- 
crowned  hat  of  his  and  depositing  the  precious 
sentence  safely  within  it,  which,  we  recollect,  was 
formerly  his  Post  Office  at  New  Salem.  Goethe 
once  wished  for  a  leathern  jerkin  on  which  he 
might  inscribe  any  sudden  verse  sent  down  to  him 
from  Parnassus,  while  he  was  moving  about  in 
prosaic  occupations.  Of  the  two  devices  we  would 
vote  for  Lincoln's. 

Far  more  significant  is  the  record  which  Hern- 
don  has  handed  down  concerning  the  immediate 
reception  of  the  doctrine  by  Lincoln's  Springfield 
political  associates.  "Before  delivering  his  speech, 
he  invited  a  dozen  or  so  of  his  friends  over  to  the 
library  of  the  State  House,  where  he  read  and 
submitted  it  to  them.  After  the  reading,  he  asked 
each  man  for  his  opinion."  Not  one  endorsed  it 
except  Herndon  himself,  who,  in  a  sudden  burst 
of  prophetic  exaltation,  declared:  "Lincoln,  de 
liver  that  speech  as  read,  and  it  will  make  you 
President."  So  Herndon  reports  himself  foretell 
ing — which  report,  of  course,  reaches  the  reader 
some  years  after  the  marvelous  fulfilment.  There 


PRELUDE  OF  THE  L1NCOLNIAD.  405 

can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  Herndon  strongly 
backed  Lincoln,  who  felt  in  his  law-partner  and 
intimate  companion  a  true  part  of  himself,  and 
yet  only  a  part.  For  Herndon,  though  of  South 
ern  extraction,  was  an  abolitionist  after  the  pat 
tern  of  Theodore  Parker  of  Boston,  and  hence  rep 
resented  the  moral  opposition  to  slavery,  very 
intense  but  one-sided.  On  the  other  hand  most 
of  the  friends  of  Lincoln  were  conservative,  and 
put  stress  upon  the  institutional  element.  Now 
Lincoln  had,  we  hold,  both  sides  in  him,  the  moral 
and  institutional,  and  also  their  reconciliation,  as 
far  as  this  was  possible  under  the  old  political 
order.  But  likewise  he  had  both  sides  outside  of 
him,  and  around  him  in  two  sets  of  warm  friends 
and  supporters,  yet  always  clashing  with  each 
other  in  his  presence.  Lincoln  saw  his  political 
problem  incarnate  before  him  in  the  conflict  of 
these  two  sets  of  his  own  followers.  The  whole 
Republican  party  had  the  same  inner  conflict,  and 
would  have  fallen  asunder  unless  the  moral  and 
the  institutional  elements  of  the  opposition  to 
slavery  had  been  reconciled  in  a  common  princi 
ple,  but  above  all,  in  a  common  leader,  who  knew 
both  elements  well,  and  felt  both  deeply.  Hern 
don  had  his  decided  place  in  Lincoln's  develop 
ment  as  the  ever-present  moral  protest  of  the  time 
against  the  black  wrong,  and  did  not  fail  to  keep 
this  side  of  the  question  alive  in  the  sympathetic 
soul  of  his  friend. 


406        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Lincoln  rising  from  his  seat,  replies  to  his  ob 
jecting  counselors:  "Friends,  this  thing  has  been 
retarded  long  enough.  The  time  has  come  when 
these  sentiments  should  be  uttered ;  and  if  it  is  de 
creed  that  I  should  go  down  because  of  this 
speech,  then  let  me  go  down  linked  to  the  truth- 
let  me  die  in  the  advocacy  of  what  is  just  and 
right."  Recollect  that  the  chief  declaration  is 
that  this  dual  Nation  must  now  become  single  in 
its  State-producing  power.  Again  says  Lincoln 
somewhat  defiantly  to  a  protesting  friend:  "If  I 
had  to  draw  a  pen  across  my  record  and  erase  my 
whole  life  from  sight,  and  I  had  one  poor  gift  or 
choice  left  as  to  what  I  should  save  from  the 
wreck,  I  should  choose  that  speech  and  leave  it  to 
the  world  unerased"  (Herndon  and  Weik's  Lincoln, 
pp.  65-70). 

The  essence  of  the  speech  is  the  Prelude,  which 
has  the  smiting  trip-hammer  sentences,  whose  blows 
forged  the  shape  of  the  future .  Its  similarity  to 
Seward's  "irrepressible  conflict"  has  been  often  re 
marked  .  Did  either  draw  from  the  other?  It  so 
happens  that  Seward's  Rochester  speech,  from 
which  those  words  are  taken,  was  delivered  Oc 
tober  25th,  1858,  more  than  four  months  after  the 
preluding  speech  of  Lincoln  at  Springfield .  More 
over  Seward  was  suspected  of  silently  favoring 
Douglasism  for  a  while,  till  he  rather  suddenly 
woke  up  from  his  reticence .  At  the  time  Seward 
was  a  far  more  prominent  man  than  Lincoln, 


PRELUDE  OF  THE  LINCOLN  I  AD.  407 

still,  as  a  good  politician  and  as  a  Presidential  as 
pirant,  he  must  have  kept  his  ear  open  to  the 
breezes  from  the  Western  prairie,  and  they  would 
have  borne  to  him  in  four  months  many  echoes  of 
Lincoln's  stirring  Prelude .  Then  we  must  recol 
lect  that  the  last  of  the  seven  joint  debates  between 
Lincoln  and  Douglas,  which  resounded  through  the 
whole  nation,  continually  reverberating  that  Pre 
lude,  took  place  on  October  15th,  ten  days  before 
Seward's  speech  at  Rochester.  It  is  highly  prob 
able  that  Seward  not  only  knew  well  the  declara 
tions  of  Lincoln's  Prelude,  but  was  roused  from 
his  political  stupor  of  Douglasism,  which  infected 
New  York  and  all  the  East,  by  the  new  national 
prominence  of  Lincoln,  who  has  suddenly  become 
a  Presidential  possibility. 

So  much  for  the  Prelude  to  the  Lincolniad  which 
has  proved  itself  to  have  a  world-historical  import, 
being  the  prophetic  utterance  of  a  great  epoch. 
The  word  of  it  seems  to  be  marching  forthright  to 
the  deed  with  a  dizzying  swiftness ;  in  less  than  a 
decade  this  nation  is  no  longer  half  slave  half  free . 
The  prophecy  is  going  to  be  fulfilled  with  far 
greater  rapidity  than  Lincoln  at  first  could  have 
dreamed.  And  now  let  it  be  noted  that  the  an- 
titypal  counterpart,  Douglas,  has  also  his  Prelude 
in  due  symmetry;  the  twinned  Dioscuri  of  the 
Prairie,  though  at  opposite  poles,  cannot  separate, 
indeed  cannot  do  without  each  other.  But  the 
preluding  strain  of  Douglas  will  have  in  it  no 


408        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

deep-seeing,  prophetic  glance;  on  the  contrary  he 
will  denounce  Lincoln's  words  of  foresight  with  no 
little  asperity,  stoning  the  prophet  with  hard 
accusations  of  fomenting  ill  feeling  between  North 
and  South,  and  even  disunion. 

Douglas  reached  his  home  in  Chicago  from 
Washington,  and  made  -his  opening  speech  on  July 
9th,  1858,  not  a  month  after  Lincoln's  nomination 
for  Senator,  when  the  latter  uttered  his  far- 
reaching  Prelude.  In  this  speech  Douglas  shows 
a  complacent  mood,  a  happy  state  of  self-glorifica 
tion,  and  seems  to  forecast  his  coming  triumph. 
His  first  point  is  his  great  victory  over  his  own 
Democratic  Administration,  which  tried  to  force 
the  Lecompton  Constitution  upon  the  people  of 
Kansas  whether  they  wanted  it  or  not — a  com 
plete  victory  for  Popular  Sovereignty.  But  he 
claims  an  equally  great  victory  over  the  Republi 
cans  in  Congress  since  they  voted  for  the  Critten- 
den-Montgomery  bill,  which  permitted  Kansas  to  de 
cide  for  itself  whether  it  would  have  slavery  or  free 
dom.  This  bill,  however,  was  rejected  in  the  Sen 
ate,  though  it  passed  the  House  by  the  vote  of 
Republicans,  who  well  knew  that  in  this  particu 
lar  case  the  Kansans,  having  fought  valiantly  for 
their  freedom  some  three  years,  would  at  the  least 
chance  vote  as  they  fought.  But  Douglas  thinks 
that  the  Republicans  have  come,  or  will  soon 
come  over  to  his  side  permanently,  dropping  their 
principle  of  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  terri- 


PRELUDE  OF  THE  LINCOLN  I  AD.  409 

tories  for  his  doctrine  of  Popular  Sovereignty. 
And  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  the  Eastern  States 
he  is  playing  havoc,  he  is  breaching  the  Repub 
lican  party.  Can  he  do  it  in  Illinois?  At  this 
pivotal  moment  Lincoln  meets  him,  meets  him  in 
the  breach  and  begins  the  combat. 

In  this  same  preluding  speech  of  his,  Douglas 
pays  some  attention  to  Lincoln  personally,  whom 
the  Republicans  of  Illinois  have  nominated  to  be 
"my  successor  in  the  Senate."  Courteously,  but 
somewhat  condescendingly,  if  we  catch  his  tone 
aright,  he  pictures  his  antagonist:  "I  take  great 
pleasure  in  saying  that  I  have  known,  personally 
and  intimately,  for  about  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
the  worthy  gentleman  who  has  been  nominated 
for  my  place,  and  I  will  say  that  I  regard  him  as 
a  kind,  amiable  and  intelligent  gentleman,  a  good 
citizen  and  an  honorable  opponent;  and  whatever 
issue  I  may  have  with  him  will  be  of  principle  and 
not  involving  personalities."  This  is  all  very  gra 
cious,  but  the  note  will  change  before  the  debate 
is  over. 

Douglas  proceeds  to  tackle  Lincoln's  preluding 
speech  before  the  Republican  Convention,  which 
he  sees  to  be  the  pivotal  utterance  of  the  cam 
paign,  calling  it  "a  speech  well  prepared  and  care 
fully  written."  First  Douglas  assails  the  half-and- 
half  doctrine,  which  he  deems  a  call  to  "a  war  of 
sections,  a  war  of  the  North  against  the  South." 
Then  he  pronounces  strongly  against  Lincoln's 


410       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

view  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Both  these 
points  will  be  often  reiterated  in  the  coming 
Debate,  with  keen  retorts  of  the  contestants. 

But  what  a  difference  in  the  two  Preludes !  Lin 
coln's  is  a  prophecy  proclaiming  the  one  homo 
geneous  Nation  of  the  future,  prefiguring  the 
movement  of  the  Age,  voicing  the  very  decree  of 
the  World-Spirit.  The  Prelude  of  Douglas  rises 
to  no  such  lofty  outlook,  but  simply  reaffirms  the 
old  Double  Nation,  whose  doom  has  been  pro 
nounced  in  many  ways,  but  in  the  most  impressive 
way  by  Douglas  himself  through  his  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  To  be  sure  Douglas  in 
1854  did  not  intend  any  such  Last  Judgment  of 
the  old  order,  nevertheless  it  lay  deeply  ensconced 
in  his  pivotal  act,  and  now  behold  it  dragged 
forth  to  light  and  uttered  in  smiting  words  by 
Lincoln  as  the  grand  Prelude  to  his  and  the  Na 
tion's  coming  World-historical  deed. 

But  did  Douglas  remain  wholly  insensible  to  its 
deep  significance?  Again  and  again  he  assailed 
in  the  debate  this  Prelude,  trying  to  divert  it  or 
rather  to  pervert  it  to  something  else ;  but  he  only 
caused  its  repeated  assertion  by  Lincoln  with 
fresh  illustration  and  renewed  energy.  Did  not 
Douglas  also  secretly  feel  its  power,  as  he  sat  there 
on  the  stand  near  Lincoln  re-iterating  and  enforcing 
in  exalted  speech  that  preluding  prophecy  as  the 
very  soul  of  the  entire  contest?  We  hold  that  he 
.could  not  altogether  keep  out  of  the  magnetic 


PRELUDE  OF  THE  LINCOLN  I  AD.  411 

current  of  inspired  conviction  which  animated  the 
speech  and  the  form  of  his  stalwart  antagonist. 
And  then  another  and  mightier  phenomenon  kept 
recurring  in  the  presence  of  Douglas.  Standing 
there  on  the  prairie  in  the  sun  and  looking  up 
into  his  face  he  witnessed  the  Folk-Soul  itself 
embodied  in  thousands  and  thousands,  and 
heard  its  tremendous  response  to  Lincoln's 
words,  which  it  adopted  as  its  own  true  ut 
terance  then  and  there.  Unforgetable  must 
that  experience  have  been  by  the  Little  Giant, 
for  he  could  not  help  seeing  the  most  unique 
and  transcendent  fact  of  the  whole  campaign,  if 
not  of  the  time.  What  was  that?  He  saw  Lin 
coln  in  the  very  act  of  mediating  the  World-Spirit 
with  the  Folk-Soul,  and  voicing  the  command  of 
the  former  to  the  latter,  which  thereby  became 
conscious  of  that  command  as  its  own  deepest 
purpose,  and  began  to  get  ready  to  obey  it  at 
any  sacrifice.  Douglas  and  his  followers  being 
also  present  in  the  hidden  but  mighty  stream, 
could  not  help  feeling  the  "irresistible  Power7 ' 
which  Lincoln  had  evoked,  and  which  he  also  de 
scribed  to  his  hearers  already  under  its  influence. 
The  Democratic  opposition  and  its  leader  Douglas, 
listening  to  the  voice  of  Lincoln  perchance  un 
willingly,  cannot  avoid  hearing  the  great  new 
behest  of  the  Age,  and  they  too  quite  uncon 
sciously,  yea  almost  in  spite  of  themselves,  are 
getting  ready  to  obey  it  at  the  call  of  this  same 


412       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Lincoln,  and  even  now  are  secretly  aligning  them 
selves  under  him  for  the  other  and  mightier 
conflict. 

But  that  is  not  yet  here,  though  on  the  way, 
while  the  two  Giants  are  at  hand  and  have  act 
ually  begun  their  Nation-shaking  encounter,  which 
must  next  be  told. 

VII. 

Gigantomachia. 

So  in  our  modern  prosaic  day  we  are  to  witness 
an  actual  Battle  of  Giants  on  the  unelevated, 
rather  unpoetic  prairie  of  Illinois.  Two  Giants, 
the  Little  and  the  Big — so  called  in  popular 
phrase — are  going  to  grapple  with  each  other  in  an 
Olympian  wrestle,  not  so  much  of  brawn  as  of 
brain.  Strangely  an  old  fable  of  the  ages  seems  to 
be  new-born  among  an  unmythical  folk,  and  is  to 
be  re-enacted  with  fresh  life  and  in  modern  fash 
ion.  Not  now  will  the  Giants  war  against  the 
Gods  (as  old  Hesiod  puts  it)  in  the  twilight  of  time ; 
the  Gods  are  indeed  dethroned,  so  that  the  Giants, 
being  two,  have  to  fight  each  other  for  the  divine 
heritage.  It  is  indeed  a  contest  of  endurance,  yea 
of  physical  endurance;  but  in  its  supreme  scope 
it  is  a  contest  of  principles.  Each  of  the  Giants 
is  a  voice  calling  to  the  People  who  are  to  choose 
one  of  them  as  leader  for  the  yet  deeper  and  more 
desperate  struggle  which  is  coming.  The  Folk- 
Soul  in  the  depths  of  its  brooding  may  be  con- 


GIGANTOMACHIA.  413 

ceived  as  asking  after  each  trial:  Which  of  the 
twain  speaks  to  me  the  word  of  the  age,  of  civili 
zation,  of  Universal  History — which  is  bringing 
the  message  of  the  World-Spirit?  The  question 
cannot  be  fully  answered  at  once,  not  this  year,  nor 
the  next;  but  after  two  years'  meditation  the  Folk- 
Soul  will  be  ready  to  say  which  of  the  two  Illinois 
Giants  is  its  choice  for  leader. 

Let  it  be  noted  at  the  start  that  Lincoln  was 
quite  conscious  of  the  vast  audience  which  he  was 
addressing.  Says  he  in  the  Quincy  debate:  "I 
was  aware  when  it  was  first  agreed  that  Judge 
Douglas  and  I  were  to  have  these  seven  joint  dis 
cussions,  that  they  were  the  successive  acts  of  a 
drama — perhaps  I  should  say  to  be  enacted  not 
merely  in  the  face  of  audiences  like  this,  but  in  the 
face  of  a  Nation,  and  to  some  extent  by  my  rela 
tion  to  him  and  not  from  anything  in  myself,  in 
the  face  of  the  World."  A  drama  he  conceives  it, 
with  two  interlocutors  playing  the  parts,  which 
have  an  interest  and  significance  not  only  national 
but  world-historical.  It  is  for  this  reason  in  the 
main  that  he  changes  his  style,  largely  leaving 
out  his  anecdotal  vein,  his  mimicry,  his  fantastic 
humor.  He  was  speaking  more  to  readers  than  to 
listeners;  he  knew  that  the  vast  majority  of  his 
audience  would  quietly  peruse  the  printed  page 
and  weigh  its  propositions  far  beyond  the  peri 
phery  of  the  spoken  word,  without  the  personal 
charm  of  voice,  manner,  gesture.  What  he  said 


414       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

must  stand  the  test  of  cold  type  and  of  colder  rea 
son,  a  thousand  miles  away  and  more.  He  does 
not  propose,  therefore,  merely  to  entertain  his 
present  hearers,  and  he  will  eliminate  as  far  as 
possible  the  local  and  transitory  elements  of  the 
contest,  even  if  a  good  deal  of  the  worthless  slag 
of  the  day's  politics  still  lies  imbedded  among  the 
priceless  gems  of  his  oratory. 

Lincoln  is  also  aware  of  something  stronger  than 
himself,  which  he  simply  voices,  yea,  stronger 
than  the  People,  whom  it  stirs  up  in  a  mighty  agi 
tation,  allowing  no  repose  on  the  slavery  ques 
tion.  What  is  "that  irresistible  Power  which, 
for  fifty  years,  has  shaken  the  Government  and 
agitated  the  People,"  and  which  Douglas  thinks 
we  can  stop  "by  not  talking  about  it?"  But  the 
"Power  irresistible"  convulses  to  the  center  the 
religious  organization  as  well  as  the  political ;  look 
at  the  division  in  the  churches  on  account  of 
slavery.  It  is  verily  "a  mighty  deep-seated  Power 
that  somehow  operates  on  the  minds  of  men,  ex 
citing  and  stirring  them  up  in  every  avenue  of 
society."  Mark  that  the  People  are  in  the  clutch 
of  greater  Power  than  themselves,  which  is  giving 
them  no  peace  of  mind.  So  Lincoln,  catching  a 
glimpse  of  the  World-Spirit,  voices  it  to  the  Folk- 
Soul  in  which  it  is  instinctively  working,  and  which 
thus  begins  to  become  conscious  of  its  new  World- 
historical  vocation.  Moreover,  the  People  can 
have  no  allayment  from  this  awful  fever  of  agita- 


GIGANTOMACHIA.  415 

tion  till  they  can  find  repose  in  the  belief  of  the 
ultimate  extinction  of  slavery.  Such  is  Lincoln's 
repeated  statement  of  the  remedy,  which,  however, 
he  thinks  will  be  a  good  while  in  coming.  And 
there  will  be  no  war.  Lincoln  clearly  discerns 
"the  irresistible  Power,"  and  sees  its  scope,  but  its 
time  and  manner  he  does  not  foresee.  Nor  is  it 
necessary.  The  decree  of  the  World-Spirit  he  cer 
tainly  hears,  and  declares  its  irresistibility;  place, 
time,  and  circumstance  cannot  fail  at  its  bidding. 
We  have  already  noted  the  irony  of  the  World- 
Spirit,  when  its  opponents  bring  about  the  very 
thing  which  they  resist  with  all  their  might.  Such 
an  ironical  element  has  been  pointed  out  in  the 
Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  which,  forged 
as  a  pro-slavery  thunderbolt  and  ardently  sup 
ported  by  the  Southerners,  turned  out  the  greatest 
anti-slavery  measure  that  could  be  concocted. 
Lincoln,  in  one  of  his  best  moods,  gets  a  peep  into 
the  irony  inherent  in  the  Popular  Sovereignty  of 
Douglas,  and  then  darts  it  with  success  into  his 
audience.  After  several  good  hits  on  the  same 
line,  he  winds  up:  "I  defy  any  man  to  make  an 
argument  that  will  justify  unfriendly  legislation 
[Douglas's  scheme  for  nullifying  that  very  Dred 
Scott  decision  which  he  upholds]  to  deprive  the 
slaveholder  of  his  right  to  hold  his  slave  in  a  Ter 
ritory,  that  will  not  equally,  in  all  its  length, 
breadth  and  thickness,  furnish  an  argument  for 
nullifying  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  Why,  there  is 


416        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

not  such  an  Abolitionist  in  the  nation  as  Douglas 
after  all." 

These  were  the  last  words  of  Lincoln's  last 
speech  in  the  joint  debate  with  Douglas  (at  Alton, 
October  15th).  It  is  very  plain  that  he  sees  in 
Douglas  the  unconscious  instrument  of  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery,  and  chaffs  him  with  telling  humor 
upon  his  contradictory  attitude.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  Douglas  feels  the  force  of  the  thrust, 
for  he  does  not  undertake  to  parry  it  except  with 
a  little  joke.  He  has  been  shown  to  be  really  the 
great  nullifier  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision  through 
his  Popular  Sovereignty.  By  the  irony  of  the 
World-Spirit  he  and  his  doctrine  are  made  to  do 
the  subtlest  work  of  Abolitionism.  He  is  a  worse 
enemy  of  Judge  Taney  than  Lincoln,  in  spite  of 
his  protestations.  Did  he  intend  any  such  thing? 
Certainly  not  at  first;  but  Douglas  is  by  nature  a 
breacher,  a  divider,  a  dualizer;  such  a  character 
primarily  breaches  itself.  Now  it  is  this  inner 
breach  which  Lincoln  turns  up  to  the  light  so 
effectively.  After  the  debate  Douglas  must  have 
understood  himself  much  better;  at  least  he  must 
have  been  made  conscious  of  the  doubleness  of  his 
attitude. 

In  fact,  Douglas  affirms  the  Double  Nation  as 
the  cardinal  point  of  his  political  faith.  "This 
Republic  can  exist  forever,  divided  into  Free  and 
Slave  States."  This  is  directly  opposite  to  Lin 
coln's  doctrine,  that  the  Nation  cannot  continue 


GIGANTOMACHIA.  417 

to  exist  half  slave  and  half  free.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  characters  of  the  two  men  were 
reflected  in  their  doctrines.  Douglas,  we  repeat, 
was  himself  dual,  being  moulded  by  his  long  stay 
at  the  Capital  into  an  image  of  the  Dual  Union  in 
all  its  contradiction.  But  we  have  seen  Lincoln 
during  his  Subsidence  working  out  of  the  national 
dualism  into  which  he  had  been  dipped  through 
his  Congressional  term  at  the  Capital.  It  must 
not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  both  adversaries 
are  one  in  their  devotion  to  the  Union,  though 
each  has  a  different  way  of  making  it  perpetual. 
The  one  says  half-and-half  ness  forever;  the  other 
says  the  contrary.  Douglas  says  the  great  danger 
to  the  Union  is  anti-slavery;  Lincoln  says  it  is 
slavery.  Still,  let  us  mark  the  common  institu 
tional  substrate  in  both,  for  it  will  at  last  unite 
even  the  antitypes. 

If  we  look  at  the  immediate  purpose  or  motive 
of  the  two  contestants,  we  see,  first  of  all,  that 
each  was  seeking  to  do  to  the  other  what  the  other 
was  seeking  to  do  to  him.  Lincoln  was  trying  to 
keep  Douglas  from  breaching  the  Republican  party 
and  to  widen  the  breach  in  the  Democratic  party; 
while  Douglas  was  skillfully  exerting  himself  to 
breach  the  Republicans  and  to  hold  together  the 
Democrats.  Thus  both  endeavored  to  do  the 
same  thing:  to  divide  the  enemy  and  not  to  let 
the  enemy  divide  him  and  his.  The  Republican 
was  the  young  party,  still  in  a  state  of  formation, 

27 


418        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

which  Douglas  must  somehow  prevent ;  the  Demo 
cratic  was  the  old  party,  rather  in  a  state  of  disso 
lution,  which  Lincoln  would  encourage.  But  his 
chief  object  was  to  thwart  the  great  breacherof  par 
ties,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  in  the  latter's  present 
attempt  to  cleave  in  twain  the  Republican  party, 
and  to  take  a  goodly  share  of  it  for  himself.  So 
Lincoln  now  thrusts  himself  in  between  Douglas 
and  his  object,  at  first  dogging  his  steps  from  place 
to  place,  and  then  challenging  him  to  a  direct  per 
sonal  combat  before  the  people. 

It  is  this  challenge  which  brings  about  the  seven 
joint  debates,  the  seven  personal  combats  of  the 
Gigantomachia.  The  report  has  come  down  that 
Douglas  did  not  wish  to  engage  in  it,  and  said  so 
privately.  He  was  aware  that  he  would  make 
Lincoln  famous,  declaring  that  "if  he  gets  the  best 
of  the  debate — and  I  want  to  say  he  is  the  ablest 
man  the  Republicans  have  got — I  shall  lose  every 
thing  and  Lincoln  will  gain  everything."  Inter 
esting  is  this  as  another  testimony  to  Douglas's 
appreciation  of  Lincoln,  who  has  been  already 
designated  in  public  by  him  as  "an  amiable  and 
intelligent  gentleman."  But  this  private  word 
has  no  neutral  tint;  Douglas  knew  well  the 
strength  of  his  adversary.  The  question  comes  up, 
Did  Lincoln  have  as  true  an  appreciation  of  him? 
Still  Douglas  could  hardly  refuse  the  challenge, 
else  the  hard-fisted  sons  of  the  prairie  would  re 
gard  him  as  backing  out  from  the  offer  of  a  fair 


GIGANTOMACHIA.  419 

fight.  Then  Douglas  was  naturally  pugnacious 
and  rather  liked  a  scrimmage,  in  which  the  little 
fighting-cock  would  ruffle  his  feathers  with  an  im 
posing  audacity.  Lincoln,  Quaker-strained,  did 
not  love  contention,  with  one  striking  exception: 
he  did  want  to  contend  with  Douglas.  This  is  shown 
by  the  way  he  followed  Douglas  around  from 
place  to  place,  tackling  the  Little  Giant  as  soon  as 
the  latter  touched  the  soil  of  Illinois.  For  Lin 
coln  was  at  hand  and  sat  on  the  platform  when 
Douglas,  having  reached  home,  made  his  preluding 
speech  in  Chicago  (July  9th,  1858).  The  next  day 
Lincoln  answered  it  in  the  same  city;  he  will  not 
permit  Douglas  even  to  start  the  breach  of  the 
Republican  party  in  Illinois  without  a  hand-to- 
hand  fight  at  every  point.  So  he  follows  Douglas 
to  Bloomington,  and  thence  on  to  Springfield, 
where  the  Little  Giant  speaks  in  the  day  time  and 
the  Big  Giant  answers  him  the  same  evening  (July 
17th).  Thus  they  keep  getting  closer  to  each 
other.  A  week  afterwards  Lincoln  sent  his  chal 
lenge  for  a  joint  debate,  which  opened  at  Ottawa 
(August  21st).  The  otherwise  peaceful  Lincoln 
has  one  foe  with  whom  he  will  make  no  peace; 
unrevenging  generally  he  seems  to  have  one  ven 
geance;  doubtless  too  he  harbors  in  that  kind- 
hearted  nature  of  his  the  one  nook  of  jealousy. 

This  personal  feeling  spurred  and  intensified  his 
motive,  but  it  was  not,  strictly  speaking,  his  mo 
tive  in  the  present  debate.  Lincoln  sought  to 


420        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

save  the  victorious  party  of  the  anti-slavery  cause 
from  being  disrupted  by  Douglas,  who  had  already 
made  a  very  successful  start  in  that  enterprise, 
as  we  have  seen.  To  be  sure  Lincoln  would  have 
liked  the  Senatorship,  but  that  was  uncertain, 
very  uncertain  at  the  beginning  of  the  canvas. 
The  prize  of  office  he  did  not  win,  but  the  other 
greater  prize,  "the  bigger  game"  as  he  called  it,  he 
won  decidedly :  he  kept  his  party  whole  for  future 
service.  The  Presidency  also  may  have  hovered 
before  him,  and  it  was  suggested  by  friends;  but  be 
tween  the  two  positions  he  preferred  the  Senator- 
ship.  The  human  mind  usually  works  for  a  single 
supreme  object  which  we  may  call  its  motive;  but 
it  has  at  the  same  time  other,  even  if  lesser  mo 
tives.  Ordinarily  two  motives  have  been  assigned 
to  Lincoln  in  the  present  case:  the  Senatorship 
and  the  Presidency.  Let  them  both  stand;  but 
we  place  above  both  the  motive  to  prevent  Doug 
las  from  dividing  and  thus  destroying  the  new 
Republican  organization  as  the  prime  condition  of 
all  future  success  over  slavery.  His  whole  plan  of 
attack  is  to  discredit  Douglas  as  an  anti-slavery 
leader,  to  breach  the  breacher's  own  doctrine,  to 
countermine  the  underminer. 

To  understand  Lincoln  at  this  time,  we  must 
understand  his  leading  motives  in  the  order  of 
their  influence.  As  already  stated  three  stand  out 
prominently,  and  their  gradation  may  be  set  down 
as  follows: 


GIG  AN  TOM  ACHI A.  421 

1.  To  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  Republican 
organization  against  the  attempted  division  of  it 
by  Douglas.    This  was  the  chief  object  or  motive 
of  Lincoln  from  now  on  till  1860. 

2.  Second  in  order  of  strength,  but  still  very 
powerful,  was   his  wish  for  the  Senatorship.     But 
this  he  had  to  sacrifice  to  a  mightier  Design. 

3.  Least    was    his  desire   for  the   Presidency, 
though   it    was    by    no   means  absent.    But  he 
shrank  from  the  outlook  upon  its  responsibility, 
with  the  South  threatening  disunion  in  case  of  the 
election  of    a   Republican  President.     He  said  he 
was  not  fit  for  the  office.     Still  this  is  just  what 
another  Judge  than  himself  thinks  he  is  fit  for,  and 
calls  him.     Lincoln  hears  the  call,  and,  not  with 
out  some  inner  questioning,  obeys  a  decree  which 
he  must  have  felt  to  be  imperative.     After  con 
siderable  importunity  from  his  friends,  he  finally 
permits  them  to  present  his  name  to  the  Repub 
lican  Convention. 

As  to  the  motives  of  Douglas,  they  seemingly 
ran  in  inverse  order  to  those  of  Lincoln.  Twice  if 
not  three  times  already  Douglas  had  been  a  candi 
date  for  the  Presidency  before  the  National  Con 
vention  of  his  party.  We  have  the  right  to  think 
that  the  chief  magistracy  was  still  the  highest  ob 
ject  of  his  ambition.  In  fact  this  could  not  be 
disguised.  But  as  the  winning  of  the  Presi 
dency  through  his  own  party  receded  from  his 
grasp,  he  wished  in  the  second  place  to  be  Senator 


422       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

again.  Finally  he  hoped  to  make  a  division  in  the 
opposing  party,  in  order  to  accomplish  his  lofty 
schemes.  It  was  in  this  last  purpose  that  he  had 
to  meet  Lincoln  at  every  fighting  point,  who  on 
the  whole  foiled  him  of  his  prey.  Besides  its  im 
portant  matters,  this  debate  contains  a  lot  of 
petty  local  and  ephemeral  stuff,  which  the  reader 
must  learn  to  separate  and  to  throw  aside.  A 
great  school  for  the  people  it  is,  who  hear  their 
fundamental  law,  their  Constitution,  discussed  by 
the  ablest  exponents,  and  who  are  being  prepared 
for  changing  it  when  the  time  is  ripe. 

The  battle  of  the  Giants  was  really  a  prelimin 
ary  contest  for  the  Presidency,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  intentions  of  the  combatants.  Again 
we  behold  that  peculiar  play  of  counterparts 
which  seemed  to  lurk  in  the  destiny  of  these  two 
antitypal  characters.  Each  was  a  winner  and  a 
loser,  but  in  opposite  ways :  Douglas  won  the  im 
mediate  but  lost  the  final  prize,  while  Lincoln  lost 
the  immediate  but  won  the  final  prize.  It  may  be 
said  too  that  each  would  have  rather  had  the 
other's  prize  than  his  own;  but  they  could  not 
exchange.  That  was  indeed  forbidden  by  a  Power 
over  both,  which  has  remanded  each  of  the  Giants 
to  his  special  place  for  bringing  forth  its  end  in 
the  World's  History.  Such  is  verily  the  third 
Giant,  far  mightier  than  the  other  two,  who  are 
indeed  but  instruments  in  his  colossal  hand,  and 
are  working  harmoniously  with  him  in  their  mu- 


THE  BREACHER  BREACHED.      423 

tually  antithetic  careers.  So  the  Little  and  the 
Big  Giants  fight  their  battle  to  a  finish  on  the 
prairie  with  a  vast  outlay  of  the  spoken  word; 
but  over  them  the  gathered  people  have  caught 
glimpses  of  the  colossal  form  of  the  third  Giant 
directing  the  combats,  allotting  the  victories  and 
then  awarding  the  guerdons  of  the  modern  Gigan- 
tomachia. 

VIII. 

The  Breacher  Breached. 

Already  in  the  first  Debate  at  Ottawa,  Douglas 
began  quizzing  Lincoln,  who  answered  his  ques 
tions  at  the  second  place  of  meeting,  Freeport. 
Then  Lincoln  began  in  his  turn  quizzing  Douglas, 
and  propounded  four  interrogatories,  upon  which 
the  essential  principles  of  the  contest  pivoted. 
Lincoln's  plan  of  battle  in  these  assaults  upon  his 
cunning  adversary  was  to  prevent  him  from  breach 
ing  the  Republican  party,  by  making  a  breach 
from  several  sides  in  the  position  of  Douglas  him 
self.  The  great  breacher  of  parties  was  compelled 
to  swallow  a  dose  of  his  own  medicine,  and  a  hea\~y 
one  too,  which  made  him  at  times  show  show  signs 
of  sickness.  The  result  was  that  Douglas,  having 
at  first  taken  the  offensive,  with  no  little  flourish 
of  trumpets,  was  soon  forced  to  the  defensive 
largely,  which  did  not  suit  so  well  his  native 
pugnacity.  The  contradiction  between  the  Dred 
Scott  decision  and  Popular  Sovereignty  was  the 


424       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

gap  in  which  Lincoln  planted  himself  firmly,  and 
which  he  began  to  pry  open  wider  and  wider,  with 
crowbar  and  pick,  till  everybody  saw  through  it, 
in  spite  of  Douglas's  many  shifty  attempts  to  cover 
it  over,  and  to  repel  his  assailant. 

The  most  famous  one  of  the  four  interrogatories 
to  which  a  fifth  was  afterwards  added  by  Lincoln, 
was  the  second,  which  ran  thus : 

"Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory,  in 
any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of 
the  United  States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits 
prior  to  the  formation  of  a  State  Constitution?" 
This  presupposes  the  attitude  of  Douglas  who 
upheld  the  Dred  Scott  decision  which  affirmed  that 
neither  Congress  nor  the  local  legislature  could 
exclude  slavery  from  the  Territories.  Such  was 
the  supreme  law  of  the  land  declared  by  its  highest 
court;  now  the  problem  is,  How  can  Douglas,  in 
a  lawful  way,  get  around  the  law  to  which  he 
acknowledges  implicit  obedience,  blaming  Lincoln 
because  the  latter  questions  its  constitutionality? 
For  in  some  way  he  must  circumvent  that  decision 
practically,  if  the  people  are  going  to  exclude 
slavery. 

But  let  us  hear  the  answer  of  Douglas :  "In  my 
opinion  the  people  of  a  Territory  can,  by  lawful 
means,  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits  prior  to 
the  formation  of  a  State  Constitution.  *  *  * 
It  matters  not  what  the  Supreme  Court  may  here 
after  decide  as  to  the  abstract  question  whether 


THE  BREACH ER  BREACHED.      425 

slavery  may  or  may  not  go  into  a  Territory  under 
the  Constitution,  the  people  have  the  right  to 
introduce  it  or  exclude  it  as  they  please."  Thus 
Douglas  makes  a  desperate  straddle  over  the  chasm 
which  Lincoln  has  caused  to  yawn  between 
Popular  Sovereignty  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 
He  performs  the  extraordinary  feat  of  showing  how 
to  thwart  the  highest  law  lawfully.  He  tells  how 
the  people  of  a  Territory  can  disobey  the  Constitu 
tion  constitutionally,  which  they  ought  always  to 
obey.  Douglas  tells  also  how  this  double  self- 
undoing  act  can  be  done.  The  Territory,  through 
" unfriendly  legislation/'  can  exclude  slavery  which 
it  has  no  power  to  exclude  according  to  the  Sup 
reme  Court,  though  this  Court  is  to  be  followed 
without  the  least  questioning.  "  Slavery  cannot 
exist  an  hour  anywhere  unless  it  is  supported  by 
local  police  regulations,"  whose  validity  depends 
on  the  territorial  legislation  which  is  thus  para 
mount  to  Judge  Taney's  decision,  which  decision, 
nevertheless,  all  legislators  ought  to  obey  uncon 
ditionally,  in  fact,  are  sworn  to  obey. 

Such  is  the  warring  dualism  in  the  position  of 
Douglas,  or  rather  in  the  man  himself,  in  his  spirit. 
For  we  cannot  help  thinking  that  he  holds  his 
doctrine  to  be  true  in  all  its  doubleness.  And  this 
must  be  grasped  as  the  peculiar  character  of 
Douglas  at  the  present  time :  he  has  grown  to  be 
a  self-contradiction  in  his  mental  fibre,  his  very 
conviction  has  become  double  as  his  doctrine; 


426       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

the  breach  is  primarily  within  him,  and  must  utter 
itself,  yea,  realize  itself,  outside  of  him.  So  we 
name  him  during  this  epoch,  the  Breacher,  the 
cleaver  of  political  parties,  both  of  his  own  party 
and  of  the  opposite.  There  is  no  doubt  that  in  this 
inner  self-division  he  deeply  represents  his  time  and 
his  nation.  The  Union  itself  we  have  already  seen 
to  be  twofold,  self-conflicting,  self-contradictory. 
Douglas  is,  therefore,  the  typical  character  of  the 
decade  between  1850-60,  truly  its  greatest  states 
man.  His  doubleness,  or  we  may  say,  his  duplicity, 
is  not  merely  personal,  but  national.  On  the  con 
trary  there  is  a  striking  unity  in  Lincoln's  character 
and  doctrine,  though  he  too  has  had  to  pass  through 
his  epoch  of  dualism,  as  we  have  already  seen.  And 
in  his  personal  unity  he  bears  the  type,  yea,  the 
seed  of  the  coming  National  unity,  contrasting  at 
the  deepest  point  with  his  great  antitype,  Douglas. 
Now  this  breach  not  only  in  the  doctrine  but 
also  in  the  character  of  his  adversary,  Lincoln  well 
understood — he  understood  it  all  the  better  be 
cause  he  had  passed  through  a  similar  state  of 
mind  himself.  But  he  had  come  out  of  it  healed 
and  unified  anew,  and  his  experienced  eye  could 
easily  penetrate  the  dualism  of  Douglas  as  well 
as  that  of  the  Nation.  In  fact,  Douglas  himself 
both  in  his  doctrine  and  in  his  very  Ego,  in  his 
consciousness,  was  a  vivid  example  of  Lincoln's 
"  House  divided  against  itself,"  and  therein  re 
sembled  the  dual  Nation  as  it  existed  at  that  time. 


THE  BREACHER  BREACHED.       427 

Hence  Douglas,  in  fighting  for  his  dual  territorial 
principle,  was  fighting  for  himself,  yea,  for  his  very 
Self.  And  maintaining  the  permanence  of  the 
dual  Nation,  he  was  maintaining  his  own  perma 
nence.  But  the  prophecy  of  Lincoln,  "You  can't 
exist  half  and  half/'  holds  good  of  Douglas  himself 
and  of  his  doctrine,  as  well  as  of  the  Nation. 
Lincoln's  argument  against  Douglas  might  be 
summarized^  "You  can't  exist  half  Dred  Scott  and 
half  Popular  Sovereignty."  At  this  point  es 
pecially,  the  whole  Lincoln  enters  the  half-and-half 
Douglas  and  pries  him  open  before  the  eyes  of  the 
gazing  Folk-Soul,  exposing  his  doubleness,  and 
that  of  his  doctrine,  and  it  must  be  added,  that  of 
the  Nation. 

But  in  spite  of  this  triple  layer  of  dualism  in 
Douglas,  he  nevertheless  reaches  down  to  unity 
in  the  bed  rock  of  his  soul,  which  lies  underneath 
all  his  double  tendencies.  In  this  debate  over  and 
over  again  he  affirms  the  primacy  of  the  Union. 
One  strong-hearted  passage  we  may  cite  from  his 
Freeport  speech:  "Show  me  that  it  is  my  duty, 
in  order  to  save  the  Union,  to  do  a  particular  act, 
and  I  will  do  it  if  the  Constitution  does  not  prohibit 
it.  I  am  not  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  under 
any  circumstances.  I  will  pursue  no  course  of 
conduct  that  will  give  just  cause  for  the  dissolution 
of  the  Union.  The  hope  of  the  friends  of  freedom 
throughout  the  world  rests  upon  the  perpetuity  of 
this  Union."  Douglas  also  feels  that  the  Federal 


428       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Union  has  not  merely  a  national  but  a  world- 
historical  mission.  Therein  he  and  Lincoln  are 
quite  alike,  and  at  this  point  they  will  come 
together  hereafter,  when  that  deepest  rift,  Secession 
makes  its  appearance.  To  be  sure,  Douglas,  in 
true  accord  with  his  present  consciousness,  holds 
that  the  Union  must  still  continue  half-and-half, 
as  it  has  continued  so  long  in  the  past.  Herein  is 
the  point  at  which  he  and  Lincoln  collide. 

And  now,  in  order  to  understand  Douglas  com 
pletely,  we  must  reach  down  to  the  most  obscure, 
but  probably  the  deepest  breach  in  his  soul,  that 
between  his  anti-slavery  and  pro-slavery  strains. 
Which  was  he — one  or  the  other,  neither  or  both? 
Did  not  the  great  conflict  of  the  Nation  and  the 
Age  reflect  itself  in  some  little  nook  of  his  con 
science  underneath  all  his  denunciation  of  aboli 
tionism  and  all  his  dislike  of  negro  equality  and  all 
his  ambition  to  be  President?  We  believe  that  it 
did,  even  if  with  strong  protest  and  suppression. 
The  moral  question  of  the  time  lurks  also  in 
Douglas,  though  seldom  allowed  it  to  rise  into  the 
sunlight.  Still  it  would  escape  now  and  then  from 
its  silent  inner  prison,  and  make  itself  heard  on 
the  outer  air  through  his  lips.  Let  us  take  this 
confession  from  his  Ottawa  speech:  "I  do  not 
hold,  because  the  negro  is  our  inferior,  that  there 
fore  he  ought  to  be  a  slave.  By  no  means  can 
such  a  conclusion  be  drawn  from  what  I  have  said. 
On  the  contrary  I  hold  that  Humanity  and  Chris- 


THE  BREACHER  BREACHED.      429 

tianity  both  require  that  the  negro  shall  have  and 
enjoy    every    right,    every    privilege    and    every 
immunity  consistent  with  the  safety  of  the  society 
in  which  he  lives.     On  that  point,  I  presume,  there 
can  be  no  diversity  of  opinion"     On  that  point, 
then,  Douglas  declares  his  agreement  with  Lincoln 
and  the  Republicans.     In  this  passage  he  clearly 
questions  whether  "the  negro  ought  to  be  a  slave." 
Such  we  may  deem  to  be  his  own  conscience  in  the 
matter.     But  at  once  he  draws  the  limit.    Douglas 
declares  that  the  Virginian  or  Kentuckian  has  a 
conscience  as  well  as  himself,  and  it  permits  slave- 
holding,    which   thus    becomes   the    Southerner's 
right.     Consci'ence  is  a  purely  individual  matter, 
making  what  is  wrong  in  one  place  right  in  another. 
"I  hold  that  Illinois  has  a  right  to  abolish  and  pro 
hibit  slavery  as  she  did,  and  I  hold  that  Kentucky 
has  the  same  right  to  continue  and  protect  slavery 
that  Illinois  had  to  abolish  it."     The  Ohio  River 
thus  gets  to  be  the  demarcation  between  two  wholly 
contradictory  rights.   But  we  are  interested  in  find 
ing  the  real  view  of  Douglas  upon  slavery.    As  he 
lives  in  Illinois,  what  would  his  conscience  say  about 
making  it  Slave-State?  Says  he,  "  We  have  settled 
the  slavery  question  as  far  as  we  are  concerned; 
we  have  prohibited  it  in  Illinois  forever;    and  in 
doing  so,  I  think  we  have  done  wisely,  and  there 
is  no  man  in  the  State  who  would  be  more  strenu 
ous  in  his  opposition  to  the  introduction  of  slavery 
than  I  would."    This  is  anti-slavery  doctrine,  and 


430        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

for  Douglas  rather .  decided.  And  we  believe  that 
the  foregoing  statement  gives  a  glimpse  of  his 
inner  personal  conviction,  usually  not  allowed  to 
peep  out.  But  mark  the  limit  again !  He  will  not 
allow  his  Illinois  conscience  to  cross  the  Mississippi 
River  into  the  State  of  Missouri;  yea,  he  will  not 
even  allow  it  to  migrate  into  the  Territory  of 
Kansas,  and  to  affirm  its  own  existence  there  in  its 
greatest  struggle.  I  am  anti-slavery  for  Illinois, 
but  for  every  coming  new  State,  "I  don't  care." 
Such  we  may  well  deem  the  moral  breach  in  the 
very  soul  of  Douglas. 

Still  we  have  to  think  that  Douglas  did  not  relish 
slavery,  and  declined  to  be  a  slave-holder  under 
very  tempting  circumstances.  So  we  interpret 
his  refusal  of  his  father-in-law's  present  of  a 
Southern  plantation  with  its  slaves,  even  if  a 
political  motive  may  also  be  assigned.  (See  pre 
ceding  page  297).  We  have  already  expressed  our 
belief  that  it  was  this  act  which  made  him  sus 
pected  by  the  Southern  oligarchy,  and  thus  clouded 
his  Presidential  outlook  at  the  start,  as  far  back  as 
1847.  So  Douglas  had  a  little  quiet  nook  of  anti- 
slavery  conviction  in  his  conscience,  to  which,  we 
believe,  he  kept  faithful.  Still  it  was  remarkably 
limited  and  unaggressive.  If  his  neighbor  chose 
to  be  a  slave-holder,  he  had  nothing  to  say.  His 
conscience  questioned  whether  a  negro  ought  to  be 
a  slave,  but  if  somebody  else  made  him  a  slave,  his 
conscience  would  never  cry  out  against  the  act. 


THE  BREACHER  BREACHED.       431 

And  to  a  territory  struggling  to  keep  out  slavery, 
he  could  say,  "I  don't  care."  Lincoln  repeatedly 
challenges  him  to  declare  whether  he  thinks 
slavery  right  or  wrong,  but  cannot  wring  a  direct 
answer  out  of  his  silent  conscience.  Nevertheless, 
Douglas  indirectly  lets  enough  drop  to  evidence 
that  for  himself  internally  and  even  for  his  own 
State,  he  is  anti-slavery,  but  for  the  Nation  and  its 
Territories  he  is  not.  He  is  half-and-half  even  in 
his  conscience  as  regards  slavery,  and  honestly  so, 
we  hold.  This  is  the  deep  and  at  first  implicit 
moral  breach  in  his  soul  which  Lincoln  digs  up  and 
throws  at  him  with  startling  effect.  Thus  Douglas 
has  an  anti-slavery  conviction  within  a  given 
boundary,  within  a  kind  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line,  but  outside  of  that  line  he  has  not,  at  least  he 
will  not  enforce  it,  will  not  affirm  it,  will  not  even 
mention  it  unless  compelled.  Truly  his  conscience 
has  gotten  double  like  the  Nation  itself,  and  thus 
in  a  manner  may  be  said  to  represent  the  Nation. 
Lincoln,  on  the  other  hand,  we  must  deem  the 
man  with  a  unified  conscience  on  this  subject, 
though  he  also  has  had  to  pass  through  a  time  of 
dualism,  which  we  have  noted  in  his  epoch  of 
Subsidence,  and  which  has  given  him  his  deepest 
experience.  Douglas,  listening  to  Lincoln's  seven 
speeches  on  the  same  stage,  must  have  become 
aware,  partially  at  least,  ot  his  own  moral  half-and- 
half  ness,  of  the  contradiction  in  his  own  conscience. 
And  Douglas,  hearing  the  Folk-Soul  there  in  his 


432       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

presence  echo  and  re-echo  back  upon  him  in 
Oceanic  waves  of  applause  Lincoln's  words,  could 
not  help  feeling  some  faint  intimation  of  the  decree 
of  the  World-Spirit,  which  Lincoln  was  voicing 
in  a  kind  of  prophetic  inspiration  to  the  people, 
as  he  re-iterated  that  you,  this  Nation,  cannot 
endure  half  slave  and  half  free.  And  we  may 
conceive  Douglas,  usually  quite  prosaic  but  rapt 
into  a  fantasy  by  the  occasion,  listening  to  an  inner 
voice,  also  prophetic,  which  whispers  to  him: 
"  Douglas,  this  conscience  of  yours  cannot  endure 
half  free  and  half  slave — free  on  this  side,  slave 
over  yonder;  it  must  become  all  one  thing." 

Now  this  whispered  forecast  of  Douglas  con 
cerning  Douglas,  is  it  also  marching  towards 
fulfilment?  Is  that  inner  divided  house  of  his, 
divided  like  the  Nation,  ever  to  become  united, 
united  like  the  Nation?  One  thing  is  certain: 
in  the  canvas  of  1858,  Douglas  strongly,  even 
passionately  affirms  the  Double  Nation,  and  along 
with  this  goes  his  own  doubleness  and  self-contra 
diction,  which  Lincoln  does  not  fail  to  make 
apparent  even  to  Douglas  himself.  Very  deeply 
has  Lincoln  breached  him  in  his  party,  in  his  doc 
trine,  and  even  in  his  own  conscience,  despite  his 
furious  resistance.  And  as  he  is  a  man  of  brains, 
he  must  be  getting  aware  that  in  his  own  case  as 
well  as  that  of  the  Nation,  "  a  House  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand." 


THE  FREEPORT  DOCTRINE.       433 

IX. 

The  Freeport  Doctrine. 

From  these  soul-stretching  foresights  and  in 
sights  pertaining  to  Douglas,  we  must  come  back 
to  a  much-mooted  historic  question  in  reference  to 
his  so-called  Freeport  doctrine.  This  was  con 
tained  in  his  answer  to  Lincoln's  second  interroga 
tory,  both  of  which  have  been  already  quoted  in 
full  length  on  a  preceding  page.  In  substance 
Douglas  declares  that  the  people  of  a  Territory  can 
legally  exclude  slavery,  in  spite  of  any  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  "on  the  abstract  question 
whether  slavery  may  or  may  not  go  into  a  Territory 
under  the  Constitution." 

This  Freeport  answer  of  Douglas  was  picked  up 
by  the  newspapers  and  bruited  all  over  the  South 
with  hostile  comment.  The  Administration  perse 
cuted  him  and  his  supporters,  using  all  its  patron 
age  to  defeat  his  election.  Still  he  held  the  rank- 
and-file  of  his  party  in  Illinois  and  in  the  North. 
He  had,  therefore,  to  fight  two  armies,  which  other 
wise  were  totally  opposite,  as  opposite  as  the  two 
causes  of  freedom  and  slavery.  A  valiant  cham 
pion  he  showed  himself  with  that  wonderful  power 
of  breaching  his  foes.  The  foregoing  answer  to 
Lincoln's  second  question  became  known  in  history 
as  his  Freeport  doctrine,  and  is  often  supposed  to 
have  gained  him  the  Senatorship  from  Lincoln,  but 
to  have  lost  him  the  Presidency  to  Lincoln. 

28 


434      ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Both  these  suppositions  we  believe  to  be  incor 
rect.  In  the  first  place,  Douglas  was  far  stronger 
with  the  people  of  Illinois  when  he  opened  the 
campaign  than  when  he  closed  it  after  a  four 
months'  fight.  There  is  little  doubt  that  if  the 
election  had  been  held  on  the  9th  of  July,  when  he 
made  his  first  speech  at  Chicago  amid  approval  and 
applause  well-nigh  universal,  he  would  have  car 
ried  the  State  overwhelmingly.  That  which  the 
public  then  saw  with  an  almost  unanimous  shout 
of  approbation  was  his  course  on  the  Lecompton 
Constitution  and  the  English  bill,  and  Douglas  did 
not  fail  to  keep  this  part  of  his  record  in  the  eye  of 
the  people.  But  when  he  and  Lincoln  grappled, 
he  began  to  lose,  and  this  loss  continued  till  the 
day  of  election,  which  gave  Lincoln  a  slight  ma 
jority,  though  Douglas  became  Senator.  In  fact, 
just  that  was  Lincoln's  remarkable  victory:  he 
unified  and  strengthened  his  party  against  the 
grand  breacher,  Douglas,  whose  position  he  ef 
fectually  breached  in  turn. 

Still  less  correctly  can  it  be  said  that  Douglas 
lost  the  Presidency  through  his  Freeport  doctrine 
by  causing  the  alienation  of  the  South.  The  South 
was  already  alienated  from  him,  and  had  through 
its  leaders  so  said;  as  far  as  it  was  concerned,  he 
had  already  lost  the  Presidency,  and  both  sides 
recognized  the  fact.  And  Douglas  had  affirmed 
the  same  doctrine  repeatedly  before  he  ever  heard 
that  Freeport  question  of  Lincoln.  His  first  word 


THE  FREEPORT  DOCTRINE.  435 

of  reply  is  true:  "Mr.  Lincoln  knew  that  I  had 
answered  that  question  over  and  over  again." 
Of  course  Lincoln  knew  it,  and  knew  it  well,  and 
said  so  in  a  private  letter  of  the  time.  But  Lincoln 
also  knew  that  people  did  not  yet  understand  the 
contradiction  between  such  a  doctrine  and  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  which  Douglas  also  supported. 
The  supreme  motive  of  Lincoln  in  this  second  ques 
tion  was  to  get  the  chance  to  breach  Douglas  and 
to  hold  him  up  as  breached  before  the  whole  world. 
Particularly  the  wise  men  of  the  East,  who  had  a 
tendency  to  veer  off  to  Douglasism,  notably 
Greeley,  Wilson,  Burlingame,  and  probably  Sew- 
ard  for  a  time,  might  see  the  inherent  nature  of 
what  they  were  doing.  Moreover  this  became  the 
ground-theme  of  Lincoln  throughout  all  the  rest 
of  the  debates:  namely,  the  self-devouring  an 
tinomy  between  the  two  laws,  that  of  the  Supreme 
Court  and  that  of  Popular  Sovereignty  with  its 
Territorial  legislation.  We  repeat  that  the  deepest 
object  of  Lincoln  was  to  show  the  breacher  breached 
—his  two  leading  tenets  being  rent  asunder  and 
set  against  each  other  in  their  contradiction. 

The  prominence  given  by  the  South  and  the  Ad 
ministration  to  the  Freeport  doctrine  of  Douglas 
caused  a  number  of  stories  to  start  and  play  about 
Lincoln  and  his  motives.  It  is  said  that  his  friends 
at  a  private  meeting  tried  to  dissuade  him  from 
presenting  the  question,  crying  in  chorus:  "If  you 
do,  you  will  never  be  Senator."  The  ground  for 


436       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

such  an  inference  seems  to-day  so  flimsy  that  the 
whole  affair  has  been  branded  as  fabulous.  More 
over  this  meeting  has  aroused  suspicion  by  being 
reported  at  so  many  different  places:  at  Dixon, 
Mendota,  Freeport,  on  a  railroad  train.  Lincoln 
probably  did  meet  his  friends  in  each  locality  that 
he  passed  through,  and  sometimes  he  may  have 
read  his  questions,  and  somebody  may  have  ob 
jected.  Who  blew  the  colossal  bubble,  inflating 
some  little  meeting  of  local  politicians  with  a  vast 
historical  significance?  Doubtless  some  news 
paper  reporter  full  of  self-importance  who  was 
present;  indications  point  to  Joseph  Medill,  of 
Chicago,  as  the  magician  who  could  make  an  ocean 
of  lather  out  of  a  pin-head  of  soap. 

Lincoln's  answer  to  some  protester  has  become 
historical,  whatever  be  its  origin:  "I  am  after 
larger  game ;  the  battle  of  1860  is  worth  a  hundred 
of  this."  The  utterance  is  somewhat  oracular, 
and  most  writers  have  at  once  taken  for  granted 
that  Lincoln  had  already  in  mind  the  Presidency. 
But  his  repeated  later  declaration  was  that  he  did 
not  deem  himself  fit  to  be  President,  and  also  that 
he  would  rather  have  the  Senatorship  than  the 
Presidency.  To  our  mind,  the  larger  game  to 
which  Lincoln  covertly  alludes  is  what  has  already 
been  given  as  his  leading  motive :  to  prevent  Doug 
las  from  breaching  the  Republican  forces,  first  in 
Illinois  and  then  in  the  Eastern  States,  where  the 
danger  was  greatest.  The  chief  Republican  lead- 


THE  FREEPORT.  DOCTRINE.  437 

ers  in  the  East  were  either  silent  or  had  openly 
advised  Lincoln  and  his  friends  to  re-elect  Douglas. 
Here  is  what  Lincoln  thought  of  that  policy :  "  Had 
we  followed  the  advice,  there  would  now  be  no 
Republican  party  in  Illinois,  and  none  to  speak  of 
anywhere  else."  This  was  spoken  the  year  after 
wards  and  gives  a  glimpse  of  Lincoln's  deepest 
motive  in  the  campaign  for  Senatorship,  even 
though  he  strongly  wished  to  be  Senator,  and  must 
at  times  have  thought  of  the  possibility  of  his  be 
coming  President  of  the  United  States.  The  three 
stratified  motives  already  indicated  we  must  not 
leave  out  of  mind;  moreover,  we  should  recall  that 
Lincoln  was  well  aware  not  only  of  his  vast  seen 
audience,  but  also  of  his  far  vaster  unseen  one, 
embracing  State  and  Nation,  by  means  of  the  re 
ports  in  the  newspapers;  yea,  it  was,  as  he  says,  a 
drama  acted  "to  some  extent  in  the  face  of  the 
World,"  and,  it  may  be  added,  of  the  World's  His 
tory. 

Both  Lincoln  and  Douglas  early  divined  each 
other's  plan  of  battle.  Already  at  Freeport  each 
amusingly  charges  the  other  with  the  design  of 
breaching  the  opposite  party.  Says  Douglas:  "I 
know  Mr.  Lincoln's  object:  he  wants  to  divide  the 
Democratic  party  in  order  that  he  may  defeat  me 
and  get  to  the  Senate."  Lincoln  declares  in  his  re 
joinder:  "I'll  tell  you  what  the  Judge  is  afraid  of. 
He  is  afraid  we'll  all  pull  together.  This  is  what 
alarms  him  more  than  anything  else.  For  my 


438        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

part,  I  do  hope  that  all  of  us,  entertaining  a  com 
mon  sentiment  in  opposition  to  what  appears  to 
us  a  design  to  nationalize  and  perpetuate  slavery, 
will  waive  minor  differences  which  either  belong 
to  the  dead  past  or  the  distant  future,  and  all  pull 
together  in  this  struggle."  Douglas  then  has  not 
breached  the  Republican  party  in  Illinois,  what 
ever  may  have  been  his  success  in  the  East.  Again 
Lincoln  says  in  the  same  debate:  "His  hope 
rested  on  the  idea  of  enlisting  the  great '  Black  Re 
publican'  party,  and  making  it  the  tail  of  his  new 
kite."  That  was  in  Congress  when  he  denounced 
the  Lecompton  fraud  and  even  voted  against  the 
English  bill.  Now  behold  the  change  brought 
about  chiefly  by  Lincoln's  breaching  the  breacher. 
"But  the  Judge's  eye  is  farther  South  now.  Then 
it  was  very  peculiarly  and  decidedly  North."  Who 
turned  him  around  and  made  him  face  Southward 
again,  or  perchance  both  ways  in  his  double  doc 
trine?  That  was  the  deed  of  the  Big  Giant,  in 
which  he  shows  himself  truly  gigantic. 

Such  was  Lincoln's  famous  second  Freeport  inter 
rogatory  with  the  reply  of  Douglas,  the  latter  caus 
ing  such  a  thunderous  detonation  in  the  South 
that  many  loud  echoes  rolled  thence  backward  to 
the  North.  One  of  these  echoes  was  the  factitious 
importance,  if  not  quite  fictitious,  of  that  meeting 
of  Lincoln's  friends,  urging  him  not  to  ask  the 
question.  The  truth  is  that  certain  conservative 
friends  of  his  were  always  opposing  each  step  he 


THE  FREEPORT  DOCTRINE.  439 

took  in  advance  of  them.  How  bitterly  they  con 
demned,  according  to  Herndon  and  Lamon,  his 
grand  Prelude  concerning  "the  House  divided 
against  itself!"  He  had  learned  to  take  his  own 
counsel,  he  must  march  to  the  front  as  leader,  and 
soon  the  rest  would  follow.  Already  the  World- 
Spirit  was  whispering  to  him  its  supreme  behest, 
and  he  could  not  listen  to  the  petty  cavils  of  small 
politicians  without  defaulting  his  own  destiny. 
So  in  these  days  we  behold  Lincoln  going  straight 
ahead  and  delivering  his  message,  verily  world- 
historical. 

If  the  second  interrogatory  produced  its  chief 
result  in  the  South,  the  third  one  of  the  same  Free- 
port  series  was  far  more  effective  in  the  North. 
In  fact  Lincoln  evidently  thought  it  the  most  im 
portant  of  all  these  questions,  if  we  may  judge 
from  the  number  of  times  in  which  he  pressed  it 
directly  upon  his  adversary  or  repeated  its  argu 
ment.  Here  it  is:  "If  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  shall  decide  that  States  cannot  ex 
clude  slavery  from  their  limits,  are  you  in  favor  of 
acquiescing  in,  adopting,  and  following  such  de 
cision  as  a  rule  of  political  action?" 

The  question  gave  Lincoln  the  opportunity  to 
drive  home  to  his  audience,  both  Republican  and 
Democratic :  Are  you  ready  to  see  Illinois  made  a 
slave-State  by  a  new  Dred  Scott  decision?  More 
over,  Douglas  does  not  directly  answer  the  ques 
tion,  declaring  it  to  be  absurd  and  an  imputation 


440        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

upon  the  Supreme  Court,  and  an  attempt  "to 
destroy  public  confidence  in  the  highest  judicial 
tribunal  on  earth."  Still,  his  answer,  if  it  means 
anything,  means  his  opposition  to  such  a  decision. 
Really  Douglas  is  again  breached  in  his  view  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  by  Lincoln,  as  he  was  before 
breached  in  his  Popular  Sovereignty.  Very  im 
pressive  rose  Lincoln's  eloquence  upon  this  theme, 
especially  at  Galesburg;  he  made  the  Folk-Soul 
shiver  at  the  outlook  of  slavery  legalized  in  Illinois 
by  a  fresh  decree  of  Judge  Taney.  Not  only 
possible  but  probable  was  such  a  result,  in  case  of 
a  Democratic  Presidential  victory;  in  fact,  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  as  the  first  step,  was  far 
harder  to  take  than  this  second  step  would  be. 

Lincoln's  party  obtained  a  majority  of  nearly 
4,000  over  Douglas  in  a  Northern  State  which  had 
voted  for  Buchanan  two  years  before.  The  man 
who  could  do  that  showed  himself  the  available 
candidate  for  the  coming  Presidency.  Seward 
certainly  could  not  have  done  it.  Lincoln  had 
prevented  the  breaching  of  his  party,  had  rallied  it 
around  himself,  and  had  brought  it  to  say  in 
thousandfold  chorus  with  himself:  This  nation 
cannot  endure  half  slave  and  half  free.  Such  was 
his  great  victory,  though  he  had  lost  the  Senator- 
ship  through  hold-over  members  of  the  State  Legis 
lature,  and  through  an  unfair,  or  rather  outgrown, 
apportionment.  Lincoln  was  aware  that  he  had 
delivered  a  great  message.  In  a  private  letter  he 


OUTSIDE  THE  STATE.  441 

writes  a  few  days  after  the  election:  "I  am  glad  I 
made  the  late  race.  It  gave  me  a  hearing  on  the 
great  and  durable  question  of  the  age,  which  I  would 
have  had  in  no  other  way.  *  *  *  I  believe  I 
have  made  some  marks  which  will  tell  for  the  cause 
of  civil  liberty  long  after  I  am  gone."  It  may  be 
said  that  he  has  proclaimed  the  evangel  of  the 
time,  voicing  the  World-Spirit  to  the  Folk-Soul. 
He  has  uttered  the  culminating  word  of  the  Lincoln- 
Douglas  sexennium.  From  all  directions  echoes 
begin  to  sound  back  to  him  of  the  great  deed  he 
has  done,  with  implorations  for  help.  The  cry  is: 
Come  to  us  and  repeat  your  Illinois  work;  we  have 
the  same  diabolic  malady  here  which  you  have  cast 
out  there;  come  and  help  us,  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord !  So  Lincoln  has  to  buckle  on  his  armor  again 
and  set  out  on  a  much  longer  march,  nothing  less 
than  the  circuit  of  the  entire  free  North  from  East 
to  West. 

X. 

Outside  the  State. 

Again  Lincoln  is  to  nationalize  himself,  but  not 
by  going  as  Senator  to  the  Capital.  Once  he  went 
thither  as  Representative,  and  was  dualized 
thereby  so  deeply  that  he  sank  down  into  his 
long  Subsidence.  Then  he,  a  supporter  of  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  in  favor  of  excluding  slavery  from 
the  territories,  campaigned  the  North-Eastern 
States  for  the  Whig  party  which  trampled  upon 


442       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

the  Proviso.  But  now  he  goes  from  the  Illinois 
Capital  to  the  same  North-Eastern  States  a  uni 
fied  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  with  a  unified  party 
back  of  him;  yea  it  may  be  said,  that  he  having 
unified  himself  out  of  his  own  dualism,  has  done 
the  same  for  his  party — the  pivotal  deed  of  uni 
fying  it  against  the  arch-breacher  of  parties, 
Douglas.  That  was  really  the  great  and  lasting 
victory  won  by  him  in  the  Battle  of  the  Giants 
recently  fought  upon  the  prairies. 

At  once  that  deed  began  to  be  recognized  in  its 
true  bearing  throughout  the  North,  and  in  the 
South  too.  A  friend  compared  him  to  Byron, 
who  said  that  he  awoke  one  morning  and  found 
himself  famous.  The  epochal  man  had  arisen, 
and  the  People  began  to  see  his  outlines,  and  to 
call  for  him  everywhere.  His  doctrine  in  regard 
to  the  restriction  of  slavery  was  not  new;  it  had 
been  already  embodied  in  the  Republican  plat 
form  of  1856.  But  the  real  crisis  was  the  scission 
which  Douglas  was  producing  in  the  anti-slavery 
ranks,  especially  of  the  East.  And  now  steps 
forth  the  man  of  the  hour,  out  of  the  dark  almost, 
and  puts  himself  right  into  the  breach  of  the  Ti 
tanic  party-splitter  in  the  latter 's  own  home. 
Douglas  indeed  gets  back  to  the  Senate,  but  Lin 
coln  consolidates  and  unifies  his  party  as  never 
before,  carrying  with  him  a  greater  number  of  his 
State's  voters  than  his  opponent,  though  not  quite 
a  majority  of  the  total  vote. 


OUTSIDE  THE  STATE.  443 

Soon  from  every  point  of  the  horizon  voices 
begin  to  float  into  Lincoln's  retirement  at  Spring 
field  :  Will  you  not  help  us  do  in  our  State  what 
you  have  done  in  yours — Douglasism  is  breaching 
the  party  here  too.  Out  of  the  many  calls  Lin 
coln  had  to  make  a  selection.  Evidently  with 
design  he  chose  four  localities  in  which  he  might- 
well  think  his  presence  to  be  most  needed — two  in 
the  new  States  (West)  and  two  in  the  old  (East). 
These  we  may  mention  in  chronological  order,  all 
of  these  visits  occurring  in  the  period  from  autumn 
1859  to  spring  1860. 

1  Ohio.  Douglas  had  already  made  a  speech  in 
Columbus  a  little  while  before  the  advent  of  Lin 
coln,  who  was  ever  ready  to  pursue  his  antagonist 
over  the  whole  country,  as  he  did  in  Illinois. 
Thus  the  contest  was  getting  transferred  beyond 
the  border  of  their  State.  Lincoln's  speech  at  Co 
lumbus  largely  repeated  his  former  arguments 
against  Douglas.  But  we  see  the  chief  design  of 
the  orator  in  his  warning  to  the  Ohioans:  "the 
most  imminent  danger  that  threatens  that  purpose," 
namely  the  purpose  of  the  Republican  party  in  re 
stricting  slavery  "is  that  insidious  Douglas  Popular 
Sovereignty.  That  is  the  miner  and  the  sapper," 
whose  aim  is  to  undermine  and  thus  breach  the  Re 
publican  organization.  It  seeks  to  do  this  primarily 
by  debauching  public  sentiment  with  an  indiffer 
ence  to  slavery.  Its  principle  is  "that  if  one  man 
chooses  to  make  a  slave  of  the  other  man,  neither 


444        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

that  other  man  nor  anybody  else  has  a  right  to 
object."  Thus  the  Free-States  are  being  made 
ready  for  a  universal  slave  code,  and  for  the  na 
tionalizing  of  slavery.  Such  is  the  effect  of  that 
insidious  "I  don't  care"  of  Douglas,  "the  miner 
and  the  sapper"  of  our  party.  Lincoln  also  takes 
a  tilt  at  the  history  of  Popular  Sovereignty  as  set 
forth  in  the  recent  magazine  article  of  Douglas — a 
subject  which  he  will  investigate  more  fully  for 
his  later  Cooper  Institute  speech.  Note  too  that 
keen  thrust  into  character:  "He,  Douglas,  is  so 
put  up  by  nature  that  a  lash  upon  his  back  would 
hurt  him,  but  a  lash  upon  anybody  else's  back 
would  not  hurt  him." 

Interesting  is  the  fact  that  Lincoln  now  gets  in 
Columbus  a  publisher  for  his  speeches  and  those  of 
Douglas  in  the  great  Debate.  The  book  was  cir 
culated  by  the  Republican  Committee  as  a  cam 
paign  document  for  the  fall  elections,  and  three 
large  editions  were  sold  directly  to  the  public. 
Already  in  Springfield  Lincoln  had  sought  to  in 
duce  a  publisher  to  take  hold  of  the  work,  but 
without  success.  To-day,  after  half  a  century,  it 
has  become  a  kind  of  political  Folk-Book,  speaking 
as  none  other  of  the  kind  to  the  American  People. 

The  next  day  (September  17th)  Lincoln  went  to 
Cincinnati  and  there  made  a  speech.  He  gave  it 
a  new  turn  by  transforming  it  into  an  ironical 
address  to  the  Kentuckians  across  the  Ohio  river 
in  favor  of  Douglas.  Somebody  in  the  audience 


OUTSIDE  THE  STATE.  445 

cried  out:  Speak  to  Ohio  men  and  not  to  Ken- 
tuckians.  Really,  however,  he  was  speaking  to 
Ohio  men  and  showing  them  in  this  indirect  way 
that  Douglas  was  secretly  supporting  the  Southern 
view,  here  represented  by  Kentuckians,  and  that 
these  ought  to  favor  him  for  the  Presidency,  as  a 
number  of  their  leading  men  had  urged  his  elec 
tion  to  the  Senatorship  instead  of  Lincoln.  The 
irony  brings  out  strongly  what  Lincoln  deemed 
the  insidious  method  of  Douglas. 

We  see  that  Lincoln  strives  to  keep  the  Repub 
lican  party  on  institutional  lines,  and  thus  to 
unite  all  anti-slavery  men  upon  the  one  supreme 
question.  The  Ohio  Republican  Convention  had 
called  for  the  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
which  would  "utterly  overwhelm  us  in  Illinois 
with  the  charge  of  enmity  to  the  Constitution 
itself,"  for  it  would  alienate  "many  good  men 
sincerely  opposed  to  slavery,"  yet  adhering  to 
the  Constitution.  Such  a  plank  should  by  all 
means  "be  kept  out  of  our  National  Convention" 
of  1860,  and  it  was.  (Works  I.,  pp.  536,  537). 
Then  Kansas  with  all  her  Free-Stateism  leans  de 
cidedly  to  the  Popular  Sovereignty  of  Douglas 
"who  is  the  most  dangerous  enemy  of  liberty,  be 
cause  the  most  insidious  one."  So  Lincoln  is  off 
for  Kafisas  next,  which  needs  some  elevation  of 
its  individual  cause  into  a  universal  principle. 

2.  Kansas.  The  people  whose  conflict  compelled 
the  birth  of  the  Republican  party,  Lincoln  must 


446       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

see  and  address.  Having  received  an  invitation, 
he  sets  out  for  that  still  debatable  land  and  makes 
quite  a  little  campaign  through  its  towns  in  De 
cember,  1859.  There  was  no  election  for  public 
officers  at  stake,  as  Kansas  was  still  a  territory. 
But  the  strange  fact  that  Kansas  was  a  strong 
hold  of  Douglas  Democracy  lured  Lincoln  to  that 
epoch-turning  borderland.  For  a  majority  of  the 
fighting  Free-State  men  of  Kansas  had  always 
been  and  were  undoubtedly  still  Democrats  and 
not  Republicans.  The  Popular  Sovereignty  of 
Douglas  appealed  mightily  to  these  hard-fisted, 
self-reliant  frontiersmen.  This  fact  which  seems 
so  incredible  at  present,  was  known  to  Lincoln, 
who  probably  said  to  himself  on  receiving  the  in 
vitation:  "There  in  that  new  country  I  think  I 
can  do  a  little  missionary  work,"  and  started  off. 
Moreover  the  rupture  of  Douglas  with  his  own 
National  Administration  had  been  on  account  of 
free  Kansas.  Then  he  had  recently  voted  against 
the  English  bill  with  its  attempt  to  bribe  the 
Kansans  into  accepting  the  Lecompton  Constitu 
tion — an  act  of  Douglas  very  popular  in  Kansas 
and  elsewhere. 

So  Lincoln  resolves  to  attack  this  newest  fortress 
of  Douglasism.  Primarily  he  would  dwell  upon 
the  Douglas  doctrine  of  indifference :  "I  don't  care 
whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  down  in  Kansas" — 
so  Douglas  had  said  dozens  of  times.  But  these 
hardy  Free-State  men,  though  Democrats,  did 


OUTSIDE  THE  STATE.  447 

care  for  just  that  before  anything  else  in  the 
world,  having  risked  their  lives  for  years  in  de 
fense  of  Free-Stateism.  And  now  before  them 
stood  the  man  who  had  fought  their  battle  in 
Illinois  against  Douglas  in  person — and  this  man 
did  care  and  so  did  his  party.  There  is  little 
doubt  that  many  a  Kansas  Free-State  Democrat 
concluded  to  vote  with  the  friends  of  his  cause 
henceforth. 

Only  a  few  random  jottings  of  Lincoln's  ad 
dresses  in  Kansas  have  been  preserved.  (See  Lin 
coln's  Works  by  Nicolay  &  Hay,  I.  585).  From 
these  we  catch  his  theme:  "the  insidious  Douglas 
popular  sovereignty"  which  is  undermining  our 
own  party,  and  thus  is  getting  rid  of  the  sole  op 
position  to  "a  Congressional  slave-code  for  the 
Territories,  and  the  revival  of  the  African  slave- 
trade,  and  a  second  Dred  Scott  decision"  making 
slavery  legal  in  every  Free-State  of  the  Union. 
To  be  sure  these  last  dangers  are  not  yet  immi 
nent,  but  when  Douglasism  has  sapped  the  con 
viction  that  slavery  is  wrong,  they  will  appear, 
and  there  will  be  no  organized  party  to  resist 
them.  Such  was  the  thought  which  in  these  days 
Lincoln  kept  brooding  over  and  repeating  in  his 
speeches,  with  many  a  forewarning  against  the 
dark  and  devious  subterranean  "sapper  and 
miner." 

3.  New  York.  Of  course  Lincoln  must  go  to 
the  Old  States  of  the  North-East,  chief  seat  of  the 


448        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

Republican  defection  to  Douglas,  who  had  actu 
ally  breached  the  anti-slavery  party  there,  to  the 
serious  injury  of  Lincoln  in  his  battle  with  Douglas 
for  the  Senatorship.  Very  gratifying  was  the  in 
vitation  from  New  York  City  to  deliver  a  political 
address,  which  took  place  at  Cooper  Institute, 
February  27, 1860,  and  is  often  said  to  have  been 
the  chief  influence  in  getting  Lincoln  nominated 
for  the  Presidency  a  few  months  later. 

Naturally  the  argument  of  the  speech  is  directed 
against  Douglas,  who,  in  his  recent  trend,  had 
sought  to  show  that  "our  Fathers  when  they 
framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live,  un 
derstood  this  question  just  as  well,  and  even  bet 
ter,  than  we  do  now,"  and  really  were  the  first 
upholders  and  promulgators  of  Popular  Sov 
ereignty.  This  argument  was  adjusted  to  the 
East,  where  the  Fathers  "once  lived  and  did  their 
work,  and  where  the  old  transmitted  order  had  a 
more  powerful  hold  than  in  the  West,  which  could 
boast  of  no  such  history.  Douglasism,  instead  of 
originating  with  the  Nicholson  letter  of  General 
Cass  in  1848,  was  now  claimed  to  be  as  old  as  the 
Constitution  itself,  if  not  older,  according  to  the 
Harper  Magazine  article  of  Douglas.  So  the  Little 
Giant,  hitherto  the  champion  of  the  new  States, 
began  to  appeal  to  the  conservative  and  tradi 
tional  sentiment  of  the  old  States  in  favor  of  his 
doctrine,  and  thus  to  widen  the  breach  in  the  Re 
publican  party.  But  again  Lincoln  meets  him  at 


OUTSIDE  THE  STATE.  449 

his  chosen  point  and  overwhelms  him  so  com 
pletely  that  the  Eastern  rent  begins  then  and  there 
to  vanish,  even  Greeley's  Tribune  printing  next 
day  Lincoln's  speech  in  full  and  saying  that  "no 
man  ever  before  made  such  an  impression  on  his 
first  appeal  to  a  New  York  audience."  Thus  Lin 
coln  unmasked  that  new  historic  pretence  of 
Douglas,  and  at  the  same  time  far  surpassed  him 
in  flattering  indirectly  the  New  Yorkers  and  East 
erners  generally  as  the  descendants  of  "the 
Fathers"  who  had  repeatedly  sought  through  na 
tional  legislation  to  keep  slavery  out  of  the  terri 
tories. 

The  real  underlying  motive  of  Lincoln,  however, 
in  going  to  New  York,  was  not  to  make  a  speech 
proving  that  "the  Fathers"  were  Lincolnites  in 
stead  of  Douglasites,  but  to  heal  that  very  serious 
Eastern  breach  in  the  Republican  party.  We 
read  in  his  Kansas  jottings:  "Last  year  we  Repub 
licans  in  Illinois  were  advised  by  numerous  and 
respectable  outsiders  to  re-elect  Douglas  to  the 
Senate  by  our  votes,"  and  thereby  "advance  our 
principles  by  supporting  men  who  oppose  our 
principles."  Such  was  the  strong  exhortation 
coming  to  him  out  of  the  East.  "Had  we  followed 
the  advice,  there  would  be  now  no  Republican  party 
in  Illinois,  and  none  to  speak  of  anywhere  else." 
Here  Lincoln  declares  the  real  victory  won  in  his 
conflict  with  Douglas :  the  integrity  of  the  Repub 
lican  party.  He  continues:  "True,  Douglas  is 

29 


450        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

back  in  the  Senate  in  spite  of  us,  but  we  are  clear 
of  him  and  his  principles,  and  we  are  uncrippled 
and  ready  to  fight  him  and  them  straight  along" 
to  the  end.  These  statements  are  very  important 
as  giving  Lincoln's  view  of  real  stake  in  the  Illinois 
battle.  In  his  Cincinnati  speech  he  alluded  to 
the  "three  or  four  very  distinguished  men  of  the 
most  extreme  anti-slavery  views  of  any  men  in  the 
Republican  party"  who  favored  the  re-election  of 
Douglas  to  the  Senate,  so  wonderful  was  the 
latter's  "power  of  doing  what  would  seem  to  be 
impossible."  The  deepest  fact  of  the  Cooper  In 
stitute  speech  was  that  Lincoln  went  to  the  East 
and  threw  himself  into  the  worst  breach  that 
Douglas  had  made  in  the  Republican  party,  com 
pletely  triumphing  over  the  insidious  "sapper  and 
miner."  His  speech  was  great,  but  far  greater 
was  his  deed,  for  this  was  what  showed  his  leader 
ship — a  fact  which  began  to  dawn  even  upon  the 
"Wise  Men  of  the  East." 

4.  New  England.  From  New  York  Lincoln 
thought  he  would  run  over  and  see  his  boy  Bob, 
who  was  going  to  school  at  an  Eastern  acad 
emy.  Wherever  he  went,  the  man  who  had 
breached  the  breacher  Douglas  was  called  on  for  a 
speech.  What  he  said  in  most  cases  has  not  come 
down,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  overflowed 
with  his  dominating  theme  at  this  time — "that 
insidious  Douglas  Popular  Sovereignty. ' '  Still  there 
seems  to  have  been  in  his  remarks  some  slight  ad- 


OUTSIDE  THE  STATE.  451 

justment  to  the  locality.  New  England  did  not 
much  need  to  be  lectured  to  on  Anti-slaveryism ; 
her  Unionism  was  her  weak  spot  and  had  been 
since  the  Embargo.  But  Lincoln's  devotion  to 
the  Union  lay  deeper  than  even  his  hostility  to 
slavery,  as  he  afterwards  showed  and  said  when 
President.  Some  of  his  remarks  while  in  Connect 
icut  have  been  preserved  (see  Works,  L,  pp.  613- 
631) ;  it  is  evident  that  he  took  occasion  to  empha 
size  that  "John  Brown  was  not  a  Republican." 
In  this  way  he  could  indirectly  touch  upon  New 
England's  tendency  to  John-Brownism.  Her  most 
famous  literary  men  and  philosophers  had  hero- 
ized  the  old  Puritan  by  his  deed  and  death  at  Har 
per's  Ferry,  and  in  some  instances  had  quite 
deified  him,  regarding  him  as  "the  new  Christ. " 
That  was  not  the  view  of  Lincoln,  whose  war  upon 
slavery  was  to  be  in  accord  with  Law  and  Consti 
tution. 

So  Lincoln  goes  the  round  of  the  Northern 
States  from  the  extreme  East  to  the  extreme 
West,  making  himself  truly  a  national  man,  even 
if  he  was  excluded  from  the  South.  His  great  ob 
ject  was  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  his  political 
party  in  the  rest  of  the  Free-States  as  he  had  pre 
served  it  in  Illinois,  against  Douglasism.  Hence 
he  is  seen  chiefly  counter-mining  "the  sapper  and 
miner,"  breaching  the  furious  demonic  breacher 
of  all  political  parties  of  the  time,  Douglas,  who 
cleft  his  own  party  in  twain,  and  tried  to  cleave 


452       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

the  Republican  party.  But  he  was  met,  halted, 
and  breached  in  turn  by  Lincoln,  who  has  thus 
shown  himself  the  towering  champion  of  the  com 
ing  issue  before  the  whole  country.  And  the  trial 
of  this  issue  is  not  distant.  When  Lincoln  reaches 
home  in  Springfield,  the  Presidential  year  of  1860 
is  considerably  advanced;  in  a  few  months  the 
nominations  of  both  parties  for  the  chief  magis 
tracy  of  the  Nation  must  be  made,  and  then 
comes  the  most  important  and  exciting  canvas 
ever  witnessed  in  this  country.  Who  are  the  men 
supereminent  as  leaders? 


XL 

Lincoln,    Douglas,    Seward. 

These  are  the  three  men  who  at  this  time  are 
very  generally  spoken  of  as  the  national  candidates 
for  the  Presidency ;  other  candidates  appear  rela 
tively  local.  The  first  noteworthy  fact  is  that 
they  are  all  from  the  North,  which  seems  at 
present  to  be  producing  the  greatest  statesmen. 
What  has  brought  about  the  marked  change  from 
the  beginning  of  the  government  when  the  South 
furnished  the  leading  public  men,  and  ruled  the 
country?  Nothing  is  more  remarkable  during  the 
Civil  War  than  the  inadequacy  of  Southern  states 
manship  and  the  excellence  of  Southern  soldier 
ship.  This  fact  we  must  put  together  with  the 


LINCOLN,  DOUGLAS,  SEWARD.  453 

other  fact  that  the  greatest  statesman  of  the 
North,  Lincoln,  was  a  native  Southerner,  and 
many  of  his  most  important  advisers  were  either 
born  in  the  South  or  of  Southern  extraction.  It 
looks  as  if  the  old  Virginia  statesmanship  had  also 
gone  with  the  stream  of  migration  into  the  free 
North-West,  especially  after  it  became  manifest 
that  emancipation  had  stopped  its  course  south 
ward  permanently  at  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  In 
fact  one  may  well  think  that  if  Washington,  Jef 
ferson  and  Marshall  had  been  young  men  starting 
in  life  about  1820-30,  they  would  all,  with  their 
well-known  views  on  slavery,  have  made  a  push  for 
one  of  the  new  Free-States  north  of  the  Ohio  river, 
as  did  thousands  upon  thousands  of  their  fellow- 
citizens  from  Maryland,  Virginia  and  even  North 
Carolina.  Lincoln's  political  genealogy  goes  back 
to  Virginia  even  more  decisively  than  his  physical 
descent  from  grandfather  Abraham  Lincoln  of 
Buckingham  county.  But  at  present  there  is  no 
Virginia  statesman,  no  Southern  statesman  spoken 
of  for  the  Presidency;  Lincoln  is  the  only  South 
erner  who  has  any  chance  of  nomination  and 
election,  and  the  South  is  almost  unanimous 
against  him,  her  greatest  son  since  Washington. 
That  ought  to  have  given  her  some  food  for  reflec 
tion  even  in  the  hot  passionate  days  of  1858-60, 
before  his  full  supremacy  had  manifested  itself. 
The  wonderful  gift  of  Virginia  political  leadership 
had  migrated  to  the  Western  Free-States  where  it 


454       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

had   organized    the  North   on    institutional  lines 
against  the  extension  of  slavery. 

At  the  same  time  it  should  be  observed  that  not 
every  portion  of  the  North  has  been  able  to  bring 
forth  Presidents.  In  New  England,  Presidential 
timber  will  not  grow  since  the  Civil  War,  doubt 
less  for  a  good  reason,  or  rather  for  two  good  rea 
sons,  an  external  and  internal.  The  Republican 
party  once  tried  to  break  this  rule,  to  its  cost. 
Equally  certain  is  it  that  no  Presidential  tree  has 
ever  yet  come  from  the  vast  aspiring  forests  west 
of  the  Mississippi.  The  Democratic  party  has  de 
fied  this  rule  more  than  once,  to  its  disaster.  The 
Slave-States  saw  their  last  Chief  Magistrate  disap 
pear  at  the  death  of  Taylor,  with  the  exception  of 
his  Accidency,  Andy  Johnson.  East  of  the  Hud 
son,  south  of  the  Ohio,  west  of  the  Mississippi,  a 
President  has  not  grown  in  the  last  fifty  years. 
New  England  and  the  South,  not  sympathetic  on 
many  points,  can  heartily  join  in  the  common  ex 
ecration  of  this  peculiar  political  law,  stronger 
than  any  enactment,  which  excludes  both  from 
the  highest  office  in  the  land  with  more  potency 
than  if  they  had  been  disfranchised  by  a  clause  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  for  this  can 
be  gotten  at  and  repealed.  The  young  West  can 
be  more  serene,  for  its  chance  is  probably  coming, 
though  not  yet  arrived  by  any  means.  The  belt 
of  Presidential  timber,  accordingly,  extends  from 
New  York  to  Ohio,  to  which  Indiana  and  Illinois 


LINCOLN,  DOUGLAS   SEWARD.  455 

are  to  be  added,  skipping  Pennsylvania,  which 
seems  to  have  exhausted  itself  in  producing  James 
Buchanan,  the  weakest  Executive  the  country 
ever  had,  so  that  it  cannot  even  be  persuaded  to 
cull  another  sample  from  that  State.  With  the 
coming  of  the  new  order,  this  new  adjustment  of 
the  sources  of  our  Presidents  takes  place,  giving 
a  complete  monopoly  of  them  to  four  States  of 
the  Union,  indeed  almost  to  two  of  these  States, 
New  York  and  Ohio.  Meanwhile  the  rest  of  the 
Commonwealths,  forty  and  more,  are  standing 
in  a  kind  of  ring  around  this  political  game, 
looking  at  it  and  even  sharing  in  it  with  wonder 
at  the  secret  machinery. 

Now  the  foregoing  Presidential  see-saw  between 
the  East  and  the  West,  between  the  Hudson  and 
the  Mississippi,  begins  to  show  itself  in  1858-60, 
when  Lincoln  and  Douglas  of  Illinois,  and  Seward 
of  New  York,  loom  up  as  the  leading  candidates 
for  the  Presidency,  with  some  mention  of  two  Ohio 
men,  Chase  and  M'Lean.  And  that  see-saw  has 
been  going  on  ever  since  up  to  the  present  year 
(1908). 

The  political  contest  between  Douglas  and  Lin 
coln  has  been  already  dwelt  upon :  the  one  repre 
sents  the  perpetuity  of  the  Dual  Union  (a  contra 
diction  in  itself  by  the  way),  and  the  other  repre 
sents  that  dualism  overcome  and  harmonized  into 
a  new  unity  and  Union.  But  how  about  Seward, 
belonging  to  the  old  Free-States  of  the  North-East, 


456       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

and  also  an  anti-slavery  man  and  a  Republican? 
The  fact  must  be  confessed  that  Seward  is  as 
deeply  dualized  as  Douglas,  though  in  a  different 
way.  He  has  proclaimed  the  Higher  Law  of  the 
individual  conscience  as  paramount  to  the  Enacted 
Law;  yet  he  is  a  member  of  the  supreme  law-mak 
ing  body  of  the  land,  and  has  in  such  capacity 
taken  the  oath  to  obey  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  Lincoln  always  kept  clear  of  that 
antinomy,  though  he  knew  it  well.  Again,  Sew 
ard  has  entangled  himself  in  a  similar  contradic 
tion  over  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  into  which 
clash  Lincoln  took  great  care  not  to  fall.  But  the 
most  famous  statement  of  Seward  is  the  "irre 
pressible  conflict"  alluded  to  already;  says  he  in 
his  Rochester  speech,  "the  two  systems  of  labor 
are  more  than  incongruous,  they  are  incompati 
ble,"  and  produce  "an  irrepressible  conflict  be 
tween  opposing  forces,  and  it  means  that  the 
United  States  must  and  will,  sooner  or  later,  be 
come  either  entirely  a  slave-holding  nation  or  en 
tirely  a  free-labor  nation."  This  is  the  same  as 
Lincoln's  "it  must  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the 
other."  Very  significant  in  grasping  Seward's 
character  is  his  criticism  of  the  great  Compromises 
(same  speech):  "It  is  the  failure  to  apprehend 
this  great  truth  that  induces  so  many  unsuccessful 
attempts  at  final  compromise  between  the  Slave- 
States  and  the  Free-States,  and  it  is  the  existence 
of  this  great  fact  that  renders  all  such  pretended 


LINCOLN,  DOUGLAS,  SEWARD.  457 

compromises  when  made,  vain  and  ephemeral." 
Such  is  Seward,  the  man  of  theory,  and  unques 
tionably  he  sees  the  truth  with  that  keen  diaj 
lectical  intellect  of  his.  But  who  could  have  be 
lieved  that  when  it  comes  to  the  test  of  action, 
Seward  will  turn  out  the  greatest  compromiser 
known  to  American  History?  In  1860,  after  his 
party's  victory,  he  is  ready  to  throw  it  away  in  a 
compromise  between  the  Slave-States  and  the 
Free-States,  between  which  he  had  declared  all 
compromise  to  be  "vain  and  ephemeral."  Herein 
Lincoln  is  again  the  corrective,  who  forbade  ex 
plicitly  any  compromise  on  the  slavery  question 
as  regards  the  territories. 

Compared  to  the  inner  unity  of  Lincoln,  Seward 
is  deeply  dual  and  self-contradictory;  he,  too,  has 
never  had  that  pivotal  personal  experience  of  un 
folding  out  of  the  Double  Nation,  such  as  we  saw 
Lincoln  getting  in  the  time  of  his  Subsidence. 
This  is  one  reason  why  we  are  inclined  to  think 
that  Seward's  "irrepressible  conflict"  was  really  a 
repetition,  an  Eastern  echo  of  Lincoln's  Prelude 
spoken  several  months  before.  That  utterance  of 
Seward  could  never  have  sprung  from  the  long  but 
character-making  wrestle  of  the  spirit  through 
which  we  have  seen  Lincoln  passing  in  a  kind  of 
Purgatorial  discipline.  Out  of  his  soul's  agony, 
we  have  to  think,  rose  his  intense  conviction  that 
this  Nation  can  no  longer  exist  as  it  has  hitherto 
existed — half-slave  and  half-free.  Seward  uttered 


458       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

the  same  principle,  but  it  had  never  been  wrought 
over  into  the  innermost  fibre  of  his  political  faith, 
for  he  could  abandon  it  too  easily  and  compromise 
it  away  too  readily.  Seward,  the  anti-slavery 
orator,  declaimed  one  thing;  Seward,  the  practical 
statesman,  acted,  or  was  ready  to  act,  another 
thing.  That  could  not  be  said  of  Lincoln,  concilia 
tory  as  he  was  on  many  points. 

In  the  deepest  sense,  therefore,  Lincoln  was  a 
fitter  man  for  the  Presidency  than  Seward — a  fact 
which  time  will  strikingly  confirm.  Seward,  we 
repeat,  was  as  profoundly  dual  as  Douglas,  who? 
both  in  theory  and  practice,  clung  to  the  Double 
Nation.  But  Seward  in  theory  declared  its  coming 
unity,  while  in  practice  he  would  perpetuate  its 
duality.  To  the  Folk-Soul  the  problem  roused  by 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was:  Shall  I  obey  Con 
science  or  the  Constitution?  Seward's  word  was: 
Obey  Conscience,  the  Higher  Law;  but  Seward's 
deed  was :  Obey  the  Enacted  Law  and  follow  the 
Constitution.  Such  a  man  cannot  be  the  leader  in 
the  grand  crisis  of  the  Nation,  with  that  chasm 
between  his  word  and  his  deed ;  he  cannot  be  the 
executor  of  the  World-Spirit,  whose  decree,  even 
if  he  hears  it,  he  is  unable  to  carry  out.  Still 
Seward  is  a  very  important  man  of  the  time. 
With  his  learning,  his  long  experience  in  public 
life,  his  hold  on  a  large  following,  his  gift  of 
rhetorical  utterance  and  his  unusual  dialectical 
skill,  he  will  be  an  indispensable  instrument  when 


LINCOLN,  DOUGLAS,  SEWARD.  459 

guided  by  Lincoln,  whose  deficiencies  are,  on  many 
points,  covered  by  Seward. 

Such  are  the  three  towering  individualities  of  the 
time,  one  of  whom  has  to  be  leader  in  the  ap 
proaching  crisis.  It  is  Lincoln  who  harmonizes 
most  completely  within  himself  the  moral  and  the 
institutional  elements  in  their  bitter  collision  over 
the  slavery  question.  With  Seward  and  Douglas 
it  is  one  or  the  other,  though  in  opposite  ways ; 
with  Lincoln  it  is  both,  each  concordant  and  co- 
operant  with  the  other.  And  the  People  must 
have  both  these  elements  or  perish;  neither  is  to 
suppress  the  other  in  its  rightful  sphere;  both 
belong  to  the  one  complete  process  of  the  individual 
soul  and  of  the  Folk-Soul.  Lincoln  preserved  and 
harmonized,  both  the  institutional  and  moral  ele 
ments,  as  far  as  was  possible  in  that  time  of  their 
strifeful  antagonism.  For  this  reason  it  may  be 
said  that  he  reflected  in  his  own  soul  the  deepest 
need  and  aspiration  of  the  Folk-Soul,  which  did 
not  fail  to  take  him  as  the  best  representative  of 
what  was  best  in  itself,  when  it  had  found  him 
out.  He  was,  therefore,  the  synthesis  of  and  over 
both  Seward  and  Douglas  in  the  one  supreme 
matter  of  the  time,  though  these  two  statesmen 
possessed  other  great  talents  and  accomplishments 
to  which  Lincoln  could  not  and  did  not  lay  any 
claim. 


460       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

XII. 

The  Political  Year  I860. 

Fuller  of  politics  than  any  other  year  of  our  his 
tory  was  1860.  There  was  a  very  general  pre 
sentiment  of  the  coming  conflict,  and  many  people, 
though  by  no  means  all,  began  to  align  themselves. 
All  over  the  South  was  heard  the  ominous  cry: 
If  a  Republican  is  elected  President,  we  shall  dis 
solve  the  Union.  Necessarily  the  thinking  men 
in  the  North  began  asking  themselves,  What  then? 
But  the  answer  was  seldom  forthcoming;  the  idea 
of  civil  war  was  shocking,  and  the  problem  re 
mained  unsolved.  Still,  the  disquieting  question 
was  ever  present,  and  kept  the  popular  mind  agi 
tated  with  surmises,  and  busied  with  interrogations 
about  matters  of  deepest  national  consequence. 

For  the  deepest  rift  in  the  Nation,  the  dissolu 
tion  of  the  Union,  has  actually  begun  to  yawn  the 
whole  length  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  and  the 
people  on  both  sides  are  ranged  along  the  edges 
looking  into  the  dark  abyss  and  trying  in  vain  to 
see  the  bottom.  The  Folk-Soul  of  the  North  has 
finally  concluded  that  there  shall  be  no  more  Slave- 
States;  both  Northern  parties  practically  reach 
that  same  end,  though  in  different  ways.  But  the 
South  is  getting  ready  to  refuse  any  such  limitation 
put  upon  her  State-producing  power  and  to  vindi 
cate  what  she  deems  her  right,  even  at  the  point  of 
the  sword,  if  necessary. 


THE  POLITICAL  YEAR  1860.  461 

Very  important  becomes  the  attitude  of  Douglas 
in  this  conflict.  He  is  the  mediatorial  element 
between  North  and  South,  if  there  be  any  media 
tion  possible.  He  would  build  a  kind  of  bridge 
over  the  gaping  chasm  between  the  two  sections. 
No  moral  objection  to  slavery  stands  in  his  path; 
he  would  permit  more  Slave-States  if  the  people 
of  the  Territories  voted  that  way;  but  if  not,  the 
Free-State  must  come  in.  The  Southerners,  how 
ever,  declare  that  their  slave  property  must  be 
protected  in  the  Territories  like  any  other  property, 
by  the  national  Congress  or  Judiciary;  while  the 
Republicans  maintain  that  slavery  must  be  ex 
cluded  from  the  Territories  by  Congressional 
enactment.  Both  the  extremes  in  the  North  and 
in  the  South  are  at  one  in  requiring  the  central 
government  at  Washington  to  determine  the  ques 
tion,  but  Douglas  hands  it  over  to  the  people  of 
the  Territories — which  method  satisfies  neither  of 
the  other  parties.  Both  of  these  are  agreed  that 
the  Nation  must  be  productive  of  Free-States  or  of 
each  sort;  Douglas  would  evade  this  problem  as 
national,  and  make  it  local  and  territorial.  But 
the  World-Spirit  is  calling  for  the  decision  from  the 
Nation,  and  he  also  will  soon  have  to  take  one 
side  or  the  other,  his  own  standpoint  being  swal 
lowed  up  in  the  deeper  problem. 

Which  side  will  he  take  with  his  vast  influence? 
For  it  will  have  to  be  acknowledged  that  at  this 
moment  Douglas  wields  a  mightier  personal  influ- 


462       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

ence  than  any  other  man  in  America.  One  can 
think  that  the  great  breacher  may  possibly  be 
ready  in  the  heat  of  conflict  to  carry  his  breach  to 
the  final  outcome  in  the  division  of  the  Nation 
itself.  But  no!  not  the  Union  will  he  touch;  at 
that  point  he  draws  unswervingly  the  line.  He 
will  breach  a  political  party,  his  own  and  that  of 
his  antagonists,  if  he  can;  but  he  will  not  breach 
his  country.  He  is,  at  bottom,  an  institutional 
man;  this  we  have  always  seen  and  declared  of 
him  from  the  beginning.  And  now  he  starts  to 
pass  out  of  his  breaching  period;  he  will  take  his 
last  stand  against  the  attempt  of  Jefferson  Davis 
and  others  to  breach  the  Union. 

The  Democratic  Convention,  which  was  to  nomi 
nate  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  met  at  Charles 
ton,  South  Carolina,  April  23,  1860,  and  began  a 
process  of  inner  self-division  which  symbolized  the 
total  Nation  and  prefigured  what  was  soon  to  take 
place  in  reality.  A  Douglas  platform  was  adopted 
by  a  majority  of  the  delegates,  against  the  hot  pro 
test  of  the  Southern  minority,  whereupon  the 
whole  tier  of  Cotton  States,  from  South  Carolina 
to  Texas,  including  Arkansas,  seceded  from  the 
Convention.  But  the  nominee  required  two-thirds 
of  the  delegates,  and  so  many  Douglas  could  not 
obtain,  though  he  had  the  decided  majority.  The 
result  was  an  adjournment  to  meet  at  Baltimore  on 
June  18th;  but  from  this  second  convention  there 
was  a  second  secession  of  Southern  States,  chiefly 


THE  POLITICAL  YEAR  1860.  463 

the  middle  tier.  The  seceders  from  the  Conven 
tion,  who  are  to  become  the  secessionists  from  the 
Union,  meet  together  and  nominate  their  candi 
date,  Breckinridge.  Douglas  is  the  nominee  of 
the  regular  Convention,  though  after  a  double 
secession,  which  is  not  only  a  foreshadowing  but 
an  actual  pre-enactment  of  the  course  of  these 
Southern  States  after  the  election  of  Lincoln. 
The  lower  tier  will  secede  first,  and  then  after 
some  months  the  second  tier,  with  Virginia. 

Thus  Douglas  has  completely  breached  his  own 
political  party,  which  we  must  regard  as  his  su 
preme  historical  function  in  the  transitional  period 
between  1850  and  1860.  He  was  the  most  promi 
nent,  yea,  the  greatest  statesman  of  the  decennium, 
and  his  mighty  negative  act  was  the  disruption  of 
his  own,  the  slavery-supporting,  party,  from  which 
act  flowed  indirectly  the  Civil  War,  the  reconstruc 
tion  of  the  Union,  with  the  elimination  of  slavery. 
We  have  already  noted  this  breaching  trend  of 
Douglas  in  the  national  Democratic  Convention  of 
1852.  But  it  burst  forth  with  all  its  power  in  the 
Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  was  con 
tinued  till  its  final  culmination  in  the  national 
Democratic  Convention  of  1860. 

Let  us  now  pass  to  his  rival,  Lincoln,  who  has 
likewise  become  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency, 
rather  unwillingly,  it  would  seem,  or  perchance 
with  an  unwilling  willingness.  His  statement  in  a 
letter  to  Galloway  (July  28,  1859)  cannot  be  set 


464       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

down  to  mere  modesty:  "I  must  say  I  do  not  think 
myself  fit  for  the  Presidency."  Already  far- 
sighted  men  outside  of  Illinois  had  begun  to  see  in 
him  the  coming  man.  At  a  later  date  (December 
9,  1859)  in  a  letter  to  Judd  he  declares:  "You 
know  I  am  pledged  not  to  enter  a  struggle  with 
him  [Senator  Trumbull]  for  the  seat  in  the  Senate 
now  occupied  by  him;  and  yet  I  would  rather  have 
a  full  term  in  the  Senate  than  in  the  Presidency." 
Such  was  Lincoln's  view  of  himself  not  six  months 
before  his  nomination  to  the  Presidency.  But  the 
Gods  have  repeatedly  forbidden  him  the  Senator- 
ship,  and  again  have  blocked  the  way  to  that  posi 
tion  in  the  future.  Only  one  road  lies  open  to 
him,  and  always  seems  to  be  getting  more  and 
more  free  of  obstacles.  Friends  from  all  quarters 
begin  nudging  him,  saying:  Enter,  the  track  is 
clear.  .Highly  probable  is  the  conjecture  that  he 
had  his  inner  struggle  over  the  decision;  but  at 
last  he  must  have  heard  the  imperative  call  to  him 
self  and  to  himself  alone. 

Looking  backwards  through  nearly  half  a  cen 
tury,  we  can  see  that  no  other  choice  was  in  reason 
possible.  Seward  was  his  only  important  com 
petitor;  but  Seward  had  been  already  tried  at  the 
pinch  of  his  party's  destiny,  and  had  been  found 
wanting.  In  his  own  State,  under  his  very  eyes, 
his  political  organization  had  been  undermined  by 
Douglas,  producing  in  it  a  more  serious  breach  than 
anywhere  else  in  the  country.  New  York  City 


THE  POLITICAL  YEAR  1860.  465 

was  the  great  center  of  Republican  journalism, 
which  was  honeycombed  through  and  through  with 
Douglasism.  Where  was  Seward  while  this  was 
going  on?  For  a  time  at  least  he  seemed  to  stand 
paralyzed  in  doubtful  silence.  Who  steps  forward 
into  the  breach  at  the  decisive  moment  in  Seward's 
own  State?  That  we  have  seen  Lincoln  doing,  and 
thus  giving  proof  of  his  supreme  leadership  before 
the  whole  country. 

To  his  ability  was  added  availability,  very  need 
ful  for  success,  even  if  often  accidental.  This 
phase  of  the  problem  narrowed  itself  down  to  the 
question:  Who  can  carry  the  three  uncertain 
States  which  went  for  Buchanan  in  1856 — Illinois, 
Indiana,  Pennsylvania?  Not  Seward,  say  their 
delegates  in  unison,  assembled  at  the  Convention. 
But  Lincoln  had  won  Illinois  in  1858  against 
Douglas,  and  he  was  now  stronger  than  then.  In 
diana  would  follow  Illinois,  and  there  was  a  good 
chance  for  him  in  Pennsylvania.  So  it  happened 
this  time  that  the  man  who  had  shown  himself  the 
unquestioned  leader  of  his  party  possessed  also  the 
greatest  availability.  "  Only  one  result  could  fol 
low:  Lincoln  received  the  nomination  for  Presi 
dent  on  the  third  ballot  from  the  Republican  Con 
vention  which  assembled  at  Chicago,  May  16,  1860. 

A  few  paragraphs  may  be  given  to  the  campaign. 
Lincoln  stayed  at  home,  made  no  speech,  wrote  no 
public  letters.  When  the  news  of  the  nomination 
reached  Springfield,  he  is  reported  to  have  broken 

30 


466       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

loose  from  the  crowd  and  to  have  started  off  home, 
saying,  "  there  is  a  little  woman  down  on  Eighth 
Street  who  will  be  glad  to  hear  the  news;  you 
must  excuse  me  till  I  inform  her."  Tradition  has 
it  that  Mary  Todd  Lincoln  as  a  young  lady  had 
said  she  was  going  to  marry  a  man  who  would  be 
President,  and  now  her  presentiment  has  made  a 
surprising  stride  toward  fulfilment.  But  Lincoln's 
dutiful  remembrance  of  the  "  little  woman  down  on 
Eighth  Street"  re-echoed  over  the  land  in  the 
newspapers  of  the  time  and  won  the  hearts  of  the 
gentle  sex,  who  failed  not  to  observe  that  good 
point  in  a  husband.  And  many  a  girl  graduate  of 
the  period  cited  the  anecdote  in  her  little  essay  at 
the  closing  exercises  of  school  during  the  summer 
with  adoring  approval,  and  held  it  up  as  an  exam 
ple  to  be  followed  by  all  men  when  married,  young 
as  well  as  old. 

Seward  added  to  his  laurels  by  a  strong  campaign 
in  favor  of  the  rival  who  had  carried  off  the  prize 
which  he  and  his  friends  deemed  his  by  virtue  of 
long  and  eminent  service  in  the  cause.  Particu 
larly  he  spoke  to  the  northern  portion  of  the  Free- 
States,  reaffirming  the  irrepressible  conflict  and 
emphasizing  the  moral  aspect  of  the  struggle  with 
slavery.  That  theme  suited  the  man  and  his 
audience.  The  disappointment  of  his  followers 
he  not  only  put  down,  but  transformed  it  into  en 
thusiasm  for  the  candidate.  True  nobility  of 
character  Seward  showed,  and  this  it  was  which 


THE  POLITICAL  YEAR  1860.  467 

exalted  and  irradiated  his  speeches.  The  man  be 
hind  the  words  was  their  own  shining  commentary. 
Seward  was  an  astute  politician,  and  probably  he 
felt  that  he  could  not  have  been  elected  if  nomi 
nated.  Certainly  he  had  often  heard  such  an 
opinion  from  his  undoubted  friends.  A  poll  of 
Republican  Congressmen  taken  about  this  time 
showed  that,  in  the  judgment  of  nearly  all  of  them, 
Seward  would  not  be  successful. 

But  the  service  of  Seward,  though  great,  was 
not  the  greatest  act  of  the  campaign  as  a  whole — 
this  glory  belongs  to  the  personal  canvas  of  Doug 
las.  Seward's  work  after  all  was  for  his  party,  or 
a  wing  of  his  party;  but  Douglas  now  distinctly 
rose  above  party  into  the  Nation.  His  all-domi 
nating  theme  became  the  Union,  which  he  knew 
was  at  stake.  His  own  doctrine  of  Popular  Sov 
ereignty  he  did  not  wholly  drop,  but  he  thrust  it 
into  the  background:  "Believing  that  the  Union 
is  in  danger,  I  will  make  any  personal  sacrifice  to 
save  it."  He  could  still  give  a  smart  rap  at  the 
"Black  Republicans,"  but  the  grand  objective 
point  of  his  assault  was  Southern  Secession,  about 
which  he  was  better  informed  than  any  other  pub 
lic  man  in  the  North.  At  Baltimore,  in  which  city 
was  fermenting  a  good  deal  of  disunionism,  he 
boldly  declared:  "I  tell  you,  my  fellow  citizens, 
I  believe  this  Union  is  in  danger.  In  my  opinion 
there  is  a  mature  plan  to  break  up  this  Union.  I 
believe  the  election  of  a  Black  Republican  to  be 


468       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

the  signal  for  that  attempt,  and  that  the  leaders 
of  the  scheme  desire  the  election  of  Lincoln  so  as 
to  have  an  excuse  for  disunion."  Douglas  here 
gives  the  fruit  of  his  long  intercourse  at  Washing 
ton  with  Southerners.  Moreover  he  strikes  the 
key-note  of  his  present  campaign,  yea,  of  his  pres 
ent  political  character,  which  is  no  longer  that  of  a 
breacher,  but  is  getting  to  be  that  of  a  preserver. 
In  this  respect  he  is  a  new  man  and  turns  down  a 
new  road.  The  transformation  is  striking;  what 
transformed  him?  To  be  sure,  he  was  always  an 
institutional  man;  herein  he  and  Lincoln  were  at 
one  from  the  beginning.  But  the  time  has  brought 
forth  the  question,  not  merely  of  a  partisan  tri 
umph,  but  the  very  crisis  of  his  institutional  world. 
At  once  he  enlists  and  opens  his  war  for  the  Union, 
barely  a  year  before  the  actual  war.  He,  the 
greatest  statesman  of  the  past  decade  of  transition, 
feels  and  declares  a  new  epoch  to  be  dawning  with 
a  new  problem  and  mightier  than  any  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  government  since  its  formation. 

At  once  he  moved  Southward,  for  he  is  the  only 
man  who,  with  such  opinions,  would  there  be  tol 
erated.  At  Norfolk  he  was  asked  if  the  election  of 
Lincoln  would  justify  the  Southern  States  in 
seceding  from  the  Union.  "  Emphatically  no," 
responded  Douglas  with  his  leonine  emphasis. 
"The  election  of  a  man  to  the  Presidency  by  the 
American  people  in  conformity  with  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  would  not  justify  any  at- 


THE  POLITICAL  YEAR  1860.  469 

tempt  at  dissolving  this  glorious  confederacy." 
Thus  he  took  strong  position  against  the  right  of 
Secession  in  its  hotbed.  He  acknowledged  the 
right  of  revolution  for  a  just  cause,  but  the  election 
of  Lincoln  furnished  no  such  cause.  But  how 
about  that  other  Southern  goblin,  Coercion?  Many 
Union  men  in  the  South  believed  that  a  State,  if  it 
once  seceded,  could  not  be  coerced.  Listen  to 
Douglas:  "I  think  the  President,  whoever  he  may 
be,  should  treat  all  attempts  to  break  up  the 
Union  by  resistance  to  its  laws  as  Old  Hickory 
treated  the  milliners  of  1832."  Thus  he  has  pro 
claimed  to  the  Southern  people  quite  prophetically 
the  consequences  of  their  two  favorite  doctrines, 
the  right  of  Secession  and  the  wrong  of  Coercion. 
Probably  he  did  not  think  he  would  change  their 
purpose,  or  rather  the  purpose  of  their  leaders. 
Really  he  was  speaking  to  the  million  and  more  of 
his  own  personal  followers  in  the  Northern  and 
Border  States,  and  aligning  them  internally  for 
the  coming  conflict.  That  he  felt  to  be  his  real 
function:  to  unify  the  two  Union  parties  against 
disunion.  Measureless  abuse  was  poured  upon 
him  by  the  Southern  press,  and  how  small  was  the 
credit  he  received  from  the  Northern  press! 
Douglas  declared  early  in  the  canvas  that  Lincoln 
would  be  elected,  but  all  the  more  he  seemed  to 
feel  his  mission.  The  attempts  at  the  fusion  of 
his  party  with  the  two  other  parties  opposed  to 
Lincoln  he  did  not  encourage,  he  believed  it  could 


470       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

do  no  good.  When  he  heard  in  Iowa  how  the 
October  States  had  voted,  he  said,  "  Lincoln  is  the 
next  President.  I  have  no  hope  and  no  destiny 
before  me  but  to  do  my  best  to  save  the  Union 
from  overthrow."  At  once  he  turned  to  the  South 
again  with  renewed  exhortation  and  warning,  and 
the  evening  before  the  November  election  found 
him  at  Mobile,  having  reached  the  extreme  South 
ern  line  of  secessive  Cottonia. 

The  Presidential  campaign  of  Douglas  in  1860  is 
his  greatest  public  deed  in  a  number  of  respects, 
much  greater,  we  think,  than  his  debate  with 
Lincoln.  He  probably  did  not  produce  much 
change  in  the  South,  which  was  no  longer  to  be 
diverted  from  its  destructive  course;  but  he  prac 
tically  united  the  North,  which  read  his  speeches 
and  his  defiant  answers  to  interrogating  Secession 
ists.  He  aligned  his  own  party  upon  the  impend 
ing  question  of  the  Union — a  service  which  cannot 
be  too  highly  estimated  in  view  of  the  darkening 
future.  But  what  about  Douglas  himself?  He 
begins  to  change,  he  has  gotten  a  new  theme  very 
different  from  his  Popular  Sovereignty.  His  deep 
est  and  best  self,  his  institutional  character,  is 
rising  to  the  surface  and  asserting  itself  with  all  his 
energy  and  daring,  in  the  face  of  fierce  opposition. 
He  tackles  the  mad  spirit  of  a  whole  section  of  the 
country  with  unparalleled  courage,  and  speaks  to 
it  an  impressive  warning  against  the  way  it  seems 
bent  on  going.  Really  it  may  now  be  said  that 


THE  POLITICAL  YEAR  1860.  471 

Douglas  in  his  turn  has  become  prophetic,  bearing 
a  message  of  the  future  to  the  South,  voicing  the 
decree  of  the  World-Spirit  against  any  violation  of 
the  Union.  He  utters  to  the  Southern  Hotspurs 
a  kind  of  apocalypse,  prefiguring  to  them  before 
hand  the  consequences  of  their  coming  deed.  This 
was  Douglas  at  his  highest.  To  be  sure  he  said  to 
them  many  other  things  not  so  high,  dropping 
down  at  times  to  what  seems  now  political  clap 
trap.  Still  he  delivered  his  message  very  impres 
sively,  the  only  Northerner  who  could  have  done 
it,  and  he  manifested  in  his  own  person  as  well  as 
in  word  and  action  the  adamantine  resolution  of 
the  united  Northern  Folk-Soul  in  case  of  secession. 
In  this  campaign  Southward  there  is  no  doubt 
that  Douglas  rendered  an  inestimable  service  to 
the  future  President,  Lincoln,  who  seems  never  to 
have  appreciated  it.  Here  comes  to  light  again 
that  one  limitation  of  Lincoln — he,  the  man  of 
justice  and  charity,  if  there  ever  was  one,  cannot 
be  charitable,  cannot  even  be  just  to  his  great  anti 
type,  though  the  latter  has,  in  the  deepest  and 
most  essential  principle,  come  over  to  him  and  is 
co-operating  with  him  in  his  supreme  work,  that  of 
preserving  the  Union.  For  Douglas  believed, 
after  the  nominations  of  I860,  that  Lincoln 
would  be  elected  President,  and  knew  better 
than  Lincoln  himself  what  would  be  the  latter 's 
main  task.  Again  we  must  repeat  that  Douglas 
appreciated  Lincoln  better  than  Lincoln  appre- 


472       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

elated  Douglas,  particularly  after  their  great  de 
bate  in  Illinois. 

In  fact  we  have  to  think  that  the  debate  had  its 
secret  effect  upon  Douglas,  who  was  never  after 
wards  quite  the  same  man,  and  became  more  and 
more  different  from  the  former  separative  breacher 
Douglas,  rending  asunder  all  political  parties  to 
further  his  political  ambition.  Through  the  words 
of  Lincoln  and  still  more  through  the  mighty  re 
sponse  of  the  Folk-Soul  to  these  words,  Douglas 
began  to  undergo  an  inner  change,  a  kind  of  con 
version  which,  however,  did  not  show  itself  in  any 
open  renunciation  of  old  doctrines,  but  in  a  new 
attitude  toward  Lincoln.  This  became  visible  in 
the  Southern  campaign  of  Douglas  in  1860,  when 
he  told  the  Southerners  that  they  would  not  be 
justified  in  seceding  on  account  of  Lincoln's  elec 
tion.  In  a  manner  he  pleads  for  Lincoln  and  for 
the  Union  under  him,  the  rightful  President;  such 
is  the  meaning  of  his  attitude  generally  more  than 
of  his  words.  The  dual  Douglas  is  being  trans 
formed  inwardly,  if  not  outwardly;  he  is  not 
Janus-faced  on  the  subject  of  the  Union,  but  takes 
character  from  it  and  becomes  himself  unified 
within.  But  it  is  not.  thereby  said  that  he  stops 
talking  his  dualism,  though  this  becomes  more  and 
more  external  to  his  real  self.  As  Lincoln  had  to 
have  his  time  of  Subsidence  for  working  out  his 
double  condition,  so  Douglas  is  going  through  his 
experience  to  the  same  end;  he  is  getting  unified 
like  Lincoln  and  indeed  with  Lincoln. 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  COMPROMISES.          473 

The  fact  is  that  in  1860  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  in 
the  deepest  element  of  both  of  them,  had  come  to 
gether.     That  was  the  institutional  element.  Moral 
ly  they  were  still  far  apart.     But  the  moral  ques 
tion  of  the  wrong  of  slavery  had  become,   not 
extinguished,  but  submerged  in  the  preservation 
of  nationality.     Which  had  come  to  the  other? 
Douglas  moves  to  the  support  of  Lincoln  as  the 
Constitutional  President.    Their  rivalry  is  for  him 
quite  over.     In  this  act  Douglas  is  the  great  and 
generous  and  patriotic  soul.     Lincoln  still  keeps 
his  distrust  of  that  old  dual  Douglas,  not  recogniz 
ing  the  new  transfigured  man,  whose  change  has 
been    brought    about    largely    by    himself.    Ah! 
Lincoln!    History  with  a  sigh  has  to  record  one 
exception  against  thee:   thou  couldst  renounce  all 
thy  jealousies — except  one;  thou  couldst  forgive  all 
thy  rivals — except  one;  thou  couldst  love  all  thine 
enemies — except  one;    thou  couldst  recognize  all 
thy  friends — except  one;    and  he,  that  excepted 
one,  is  doing  just  now  a  greater  service  to  thee  and 
thy  cause  than  any  other  man  has  ever  done  or 
could  do. 

XIII. 

The  Last  of  the  Compromises. 

Between  the  election  of  Lincoln  and  his  inaugura 
tion  some  four  months  intervened.  The  North  had 
won  its  victory  fairly,  constitutionally;  the  South 
was  unwilling  to  submit.  This  Union  shall  pro- 


474        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

duce  no  more  Slave-States,  was  the  decree  of  the 
Folk-Soul  registered  by  its  vote.  But  the  defeated 
party  would  somehow  reverse  the  decree,  and 
perpetuate  the  double  Union  as  productive  of  both 
Slave-States  and  Free-States.  As  the  South 
threatens  secession  unless  its  wish  be  complied  with, 
and  as  some  of  her  Commonwealths  have  actually 
begun  to  secede,  the  old  American  method  of  Com 
promise  will  be  resorted  to  again  for  the  purpose 
of  averting  the  new  disunion.  These  four  months 
may  be  characterized  as  the  compromising  interreg 
num,  or  inter-Presidential  chaos.  It  is  true  that 
Buchanan  is  still  President;  but  an  Executive 
without  Will  in  a  time  which  calls  more  impera 
tively  for  Will  than  any  other  in  our  government's 
history,  is  nearly  the  same  as  no  Executive  at  all. 
It  is  just  this  Will-less  time  which  the  Southern 
extremists  seize  upon  for  carrying  out  their  plans. 
After  two  months  of  utter  imbecility,  Buchanan 
allows  the  triumvirate  —  Black,  Stanton  and 
Holt,  to  whom  Dix  is  afterwards  added — to  make 
some  attempt  to  stay  the  process  of  dissolution. 

Lincoln  can  only  look  on  from  Springfield  and 
see  his  coming  difficulties  increase  day  by  day, 
totally  unable  to  interfere.  He  is,  however,  in 
voked  from  many  quarters  to  give  his  assent  to  the 
abandonment  of  the  principle  on  which  has  been 
won  the  political  victory  of  1860.  Leading 
Republicans,  especially  in  the  East,  urge  him  to 
compromise  the  Republican  cause  by  giving  up 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  COMPROMISES.         475 

the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  Territories.  The 
New  York  press  begins  to  waver,  as  it  did  in  1858 
in  regard  to  the  Senatorial  election.  Seward  is 
uncertain,  and  Seward's  friend,  Weed,  advocates 
the  surrender,  at  least  till  he  pays  a  visit  to  Lincoln 
at  Springfield,  who  has  again  to  bring  into  line  the 
Eastern  branch  of  his  own  party.  "  Compromise 
is  the  American  devil,"  once  cried  an  anti-slavery 
agitator.  Certainly  it  now  starts  to  showing 
itself  devilish,  even  if  it  once  may  have  been  an 
angel  of  peace. 

Lincoln  naturally  becomes,  during  these  months, 
the  center  around  which  swirl  many  currents  of 
compromise.  He  has  one  main  answer  to  all  efforts 
at  wrenching  him  from  his  position.  Says  he  in  a 
letter  to  Kellogg,  December  llth:  "  Entertain  no 
proposition  for  a  compromise  in  regard  to  the 
extension  of  slavery.  The  instant  you  do,  they 
have  us  under  again;  all  our  labor  is  lost,  and 
sooner  or  later  must  be  done  over.  .  .  .  The 
tug  has  come,  and  better  now  than  later."  Two 
days  afterwards  he  writes  to  Washburne:  "Pre 
vent,  as  far  as  possible,  any  of  our  friends  from 
demoralizing  themselves  and  our  cause  by  enter 
taining  propositions  for  compromise  of  any  sort 
on  slavery  extension.  There  is  no  possible  com 
promise  upon  it  but  which  puts  us  under  again,  and 
leaves  all  our  work  to  do  over  again."  Such  were 
his  exhortations  to  two  Congressmen  of  his  State 
who  had  written  to  him  about  the  matter.  He  is 


476       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

set  against  a  renewal  of  the  Missouri  line,  whose 
abrogation  in  1854  he  now  recognizes  to  be  a 
great  stage  in  the  anti-slavery  movement.  He 
will  have  nothing  to  do  with  Douglas's  Popular 
Sovereignty  or  Eli  Thayer's  modification  of  the 
same.  "Let  either  be  done,  and  immediately 
filibustering  and  extension  of  slavery  recommences.7  7 
On  other  points  which  he  deems  of  less  importance, 
he  is  willing  to  yield,  such  as  the  execution  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  the  inter-State  Slave  Trade, 
Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  But  any 
compromise  which  again  opens  the  extension  of 
slavery  into  the  Territories  he  regards  as  a  base 
surrender  of  the  victory  already  won  in  a  fair  fight. 
He  will  not  listen  to  such  a  proposition  for  a 
moment.  "On  that  point  hold  firm  as  with  a 
chain  of  steel."  (See  Lincoln's  Works,  Vol.  I,  for 
letters  and  statements  to  this  effect.) 

As  we  look  back  to  these  seething  and  dizzying 
days,  we  see  that  Lincoln  kept  his  head  amid 
buffets  of  all  sorts  from  friends  and  foes.  He 
asserted  and  re-asserted  with  fresh  emphasis  that 
this  Union  must  henceforth  be  Free-State  pro 
ducing  only.  We  begin  to  feel  his  Will,  his  tenacity 
of  purpose,  which  he  is  often  hereafter  to  show. 
He  was  requested  again  and  again  by  prominent 
men  of  the  North  and  of  the  South  to  write  a  letter 
which  would  set  forth  his  policy.  He  declined, 
referring  his  correspondents  to  his  printed  speeches 
and  to  the  Republican  platform.  At  the  same  time 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  COMPROMISES.         477 

he  unswervingly  affirmed  the  Union.  In  the  East 
the  strong  Unionists  were  inclined  to  be  com 
promisers,  while  those  opposed  to  compromise 
(like  Greeley  and  Beecher  and  other  anti-slavery 
men)  were  weak  on  the  subject  of  the  Union. 
Lincoln  had  no  such  cleavage  in  himself,  and  would 
not  allow  it  in  his  party.  With  him  it  is  the  Union 
which  must  be  productive  of  Free-States,  and  not 
a  dis-united  Nation.  The  one  Union,  therefore, 
holds  the  primacy  in  his  view,  and  not  the  dual 
Union,  which  the  compromisers  were  always 
seeking  to  preserve.  Still  less  did  he  favor  dis 
union,  to  which  many  extreme  anti-slavery  men 
were  not  averse. 

Turning  our  eyes  to  Lincoln's  antitype  during 
these  four  months,  to  Douglas,  we  find  that  the 
opposition  between  the  two  old  rivals  is  lessening, 
though  by  no  means  obliterated.  On  the  other 
hand  the  strongest  antithesis  has  developed  be 
tween  Douglas  as  unionist,  and  Jefferson  Davis 
as  disunionist.  Douglas  never  fails  to  strike  the 
fundamental  note  of  Union  with  great  emphasis 
and  power.  Says  he,  speaking  in  the  Senate, 
January  3rd,  1861:  "I  hold  the  election  of  any 
man,  no  matter  who,  by  the  American  People 
according  to  the  Constitution  furnishes  no  cause, 
no  justification  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
.  .  .  Secession  is  wrong,  unlawful,  uncon 
stitutional,  criminal."  Lincoln  never  piled  up 
such  a  mountain  of  damnatory  expletives  against 


478       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

secession.  On  this  point  Douglas  reaches  down  to 
the  deepest  consistency  of  his  character,  to  that 
underlying  unity  in  his  conviction  which  all  the 
other  rifts  of  his  political  career  never  breached. 
Here,  too,  he  finds  his  original,  elemental  oneness 
with  Lincoln,  whom  he  can  defend  in  the  same 
speech,  saying:  "I  do  not  believe  the  rights  of  the 
South  will  materially  suffer  under  the  administra 
tion  of  Mr.  Lincoln/'  Surely  such  a  statement 
in  such  a  place  at  such  a  time  by  such  a  man,  was 
not  only  just,  but  very  generous.  Would  Lincoln 
have  shown  the  same  height  of  generosity  to  his 
life-long  antitypal  competitor,  the  occasion  offer 
ing?  He  did  not,  as  far  as  is  known,  though  one 
thinks  he  might  have  taken  the  opportunity  to  do 
so.  Lincoln,  tender-hearted,  forgiving  to  all  his 
other  enemies,  even  to  the  disunionists  with  arms 
in  their  hands,  could  never  quite  get  over  his  anti 
pathy  to  the  unionist  Douglas,  even  when  the  latter 
was  bearding  the  Southern  Senators  in  his  rival's 
defence. 

Still  there  existed  the  old  political  difference, 
even  if  it  was  getting  swallowed  up  in  the  deeper 
common  principle  of  the  two  antagonists.  Douglas 
did  not  pretend  to  have  turned  Republican  during 
these  four  months.  On  the  contrary  he  adhered 
to  the  old  Dual  Union,  which  he  sought  to  preserve ; 
and  he  still  could  give  a  right  smart  slap  at  Lin 
coln's  Prelude  of  "the  House  divided  against 
itself ,"  to  which  he  attributed  no  small  share  of 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  COMPROMISES.         479 

Southern  apprehension  which  saw  in  that  speech 
"a  fatal  blow  impending  over  them  and  over  all 
they  hold  dear  on  earth."  So  Douglas  consistently 
urged  compromise,  which  Lincoln  just  as  consis 
tently  resisted.  For  Douglas  would  still  keep  the 
Union  productive  of  both  Slave-States  and  Free- 
States,  while  Lincoln  continued  to  affirm  the 
Union  as  Free-State-producing  only.  Here,  then, 
was  their  previous  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  Union;  but  as  to  the  existence  of  the 
Union  itself  they  were  a  unit.  And  to  this  last 
issue  events  were  rapidly  whirling. 

The  spirit  of  compromise  found  expression  in 
many  shapes,  but  its  chief  formulation  was  that  of 
Senator  Crittenden,  from  Kentucky.  The  main 
article  of  the  Crittenden  Compromise  was  the  first, 
which  proposed  as  a  constitutional  amendment  that 
slavery  should  be  prohibited  north  of  the  old  Mis 
souri  line,  and  that  south  of  it  "  slavery  is  hereby 
recognized  as  existing,  and  shall  not  be  interfered 
with  by  Congress,  but  shall  be  protected  as  property 
by  all  the  departments  of  the  territorial  govern 
ment  during  its  continuance."  When  the  terri 
tory  north  or  south  of  the  line  becomes  a  State, 
its  constitution  is  to  settle  for  it  the  question  of 
slavery.  This  is  substantially  a  repeal  of  Douglas's 
Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1854,  and  a 
restoration  of  the  line  of  1820.  Can  the  clock  of 
the  Ages  be  thus  turned  backward  and  made  to 
whirl  forth  a  wholly  new  series  of  events?  Im- 


480        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND 

possible;  man  cannot  yet  dictate  to  the  World- 
Spirit,  upbraiding  it:  You  have  gone  wholly 
wrong  in  this  last  historic  generation;  go  back 
and  do  your  work  over  again  in  the  right  way. 

Douglas  supports  the  Crittenden  Compromise, 
thus  undoing  his  own  Repeal  out  of  which  has 
evolved  the  Republican  party,  as  he  now  sees.  For 
it  was  that  Repeal  which  threw  open  to  freedom  all 
the  territories,  Southern  as  well  as  Northern.  Of 
course,  Republicans  could  not  vote  for  the  Critten 
den  Compromise  without  cutting  off  their  own  heads. 
And  yet  several  of  the  most  influential  Republican 
newspapers  of  the  East,  such  as  the  Albany  Evening 
Journal  (Weed),  and  the  New  York  Times  (Ray 
mond),  begin  to  perform  the  famous  feat  of  St. 
Denys,  walking  and  also  talking  with  severed  head 
held  in  the  hand.  What  about  Seward?  To  this 
day  his  attitude  is  an  unsolved  enigma.  At  first 
he,  with  some  of  his  nearest  friends,  seems  to  have 
leaned  towards  the  Crittenden  Compromise,  but  he 
was  stiffened  at  least  into  silence  when  he  became 
aware  of  Lincoln's  decided  opposition.  This  silence 
however,  he  broke  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  January 
12th,  1861,  by  a  speech  which  aroused  beforehand 
great  expectations.  But  he  did  not  mention  the 
Crittenden  Compromise,  nor  offer  any  of  his  own; 
it  was  a  neutral  speech,  so  neutral  that  it  quite 
neutralized  itself,  and  so  compromising  that  it 
could  not  brace  up  to  the  point  of  supporting  any 
Compromise.  If  it  did  not  affirm  the  Crittenden 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  COMPROMISES.         481 

measure,  it  did  not  reject  the  same,  and  after  its 
delivery  nobody  could  tell  quite  where  Seward 
stood,  perhaps  he  could  not  tell  himself.  In  him 
Compromise  seems  to  have  worked  itself  out  to  a 
kind  of  self-negation.  For  if  a  Presidental  election 
cannot  fix  a  result,  how  can  a  compromise  fix  any 
thing?  In  fact,  Compromise  becomes  the  grand 
unfixer,  and  so  really  unfixes  itself,  and  seems  to 
have  unfixed  Seward  completely.  The  people  are 
supposed  to  be  the  final  arbiter  at  the  polls,  but  if 
you  can  unsettle  their  decree,  government  itself  is 
unsettled.  The  Crittenden  Compromise  in  its 
ultimate  trend  was  the  destruction  of  the  Constitu 
tional  rule  of  the  majority.  And  if  this  be  once 
set  aside,  where  is  the  end?  Not  a  year  will  pass 
before  the  minority  will  demand  another  com 
promise  with  the  renewed  menace  of  dissolving  the 
Union.  Here,  again,  Lincoln  hit  the  nail  on  the 
head  (in  his  letter  to  Hale,  January  llth,  1861): 
"  If  we  surrender  to  those  we  have  beaten,  it  is  the 
end  of  us,  and  0}  the  Government.  They  will  repeat 
the  experiment  upon  us  ad  libitum.  A  year  will 
not  pass  till  we  shall  have  to  take  Cuba  as  the 
condition  upon  which  they  will  stay  in  the  Union." 
This  lays  bare  the  very  process  inherent  in  Com 
promise,  and  shows  its  negative,  indeed  self- 
negative  character.  It  can  give  no  peace,  least  of 
all  to  itself.  It  will  be  invoked  again  and  again  to 
nullify  the  rule  of  the  majority,  which  the  South 
now  tackles  as  its  greatest  enemy.  Lincoln  still 

31 


482       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

further  declares  that  they,  the  Southerners,  have 
had  a  Constitution,  and  "Acts  of  Congress  of  their 
own  framing"  for  "over  seventy  years";  they 
have  indeed  hitherto  ruled  the  country,  "and  they 
can  never  have  a  more  shallow  pretext  for  break 
ing  up  the  government  or  extorting  a  compromise 
than  now."  Such  was  his  firm  attitude  towards 
compromising  the  one  essential  principle,  and 
certainly  his  contrast  with  Seward  is  very  striking. 
In  the  Senate  Committee  of  thirteen,  to  which 
was  referred  the  Crittenden  Compromise,  six 
voted  for  it,  seven  against  it — the  latter  embracing 
five  Republicans  and  two  Southerners  from  the 
Cotton  States,  Davis  and  Toombs.  Yet  these  two 
would  have  supported  it  if  a  majority  of  the  Re 
publicans  had  voted  that  way.  But  the  whole  five, 
including  Seward,  refused  to  accept  the  pivotal 
article  of  Crittenden's  measure.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  Davis  and  Toombs  recognized  the  full 
bearing  of  the  Compromise  in  reference  to  the 
Republican  party,  whose  senators  they  would  have 
furtively  chuckled  to  see  undoing  the  Republican 
victory  of  1860.  But  probably  a  deeper  hope  lay 
in  the  hearts  of  these  two  gifted  and  ambitious 
Southerners  of  Cottonia:  nothing  less  than  the 
destruction  of  majority  rule  through  its  own  act. 
For  the  Southern  was  already  the  minority  party 
in  the  nation,  and  was  destined  to  become  more  so. 
If  the  South  could  make  the  Constitutional 
majority  nullify  itself  through  Compromise,  that 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  COMPROMISES.         483 

were  better  and  more  certain  than  secession. 
Doubtless  good  papa  Crittenden  himself  had  no 
such  ultimate  intention  by  his  measure.  But 
Davis  and  Toombs  saw  in  it  the  domination  of  the 
Southern  minority,  or  at  least  the  power  to  neutral 
ize  the  Northern  majority.  Now  of  course  the  Re 
publicans  must  enter  the  trap,  otherwise  they  will 
not  be  caught.  Hence  that  peculiar  proviso  of 
Davis  and  Toombs :  if  the  Republican  Senators  (or 
the  most  of  them).,  will  vote  for  the  Compromise, 
we  shall  vote  for  it  too;  if  not,  we  shall  not.  For 
once  in  their  lives  Davis  and  Toombs  are  going  to 
vote  with  the  Republicans  anyhow,  be  it  yes  or  no. 
It  seems  to  have  been  Davis  who  concocted  this 
bright  scheme;  at  least  he  introduced  a  rule  that 
no  report  of  the  Committee  should  be  adopted 
which  was  not  supported  by  a  majority  of  the 
Republican  Senators.  So  the  Crittenden  Com 
promise  failed  in  its  birth-place,  and  could  not  be 
resuscitated.  In  fact,  no  Congressional  enactment 
of  it  would  have  been  valid  after  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  which  thus  becomes  the  grand  obstacle 
to  the  very  cause  which  it  was  intended  to  bolster. 
It  is  often  supposed  that  a  Constitutional  amend 
ment  embodying  the  Crittenden  Compromise  would 
have  been  adopted  by  the  Northern  people,  if  they 
could  have  gotten  a  chance  to  vote  upon  it  in  time. 
But  events  were  not  to  be  halted,  and  the  rapid 
progress  of  Secession  soon  rendered  all  Compromise 
purposeless.  The  Double  Union  cannot  be  re- 


484       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—PART  SECOND. 

stored;  the  alternative  begins  to  appear  before  the 
Folk-Soul:  complete  Disunion  or  complete  Union. 
To  Lincoln  more  than  to  anybody  else  is  due  the 
credit  that  the  Nation  did  not  compromise  the 
principle  that  it  must  be  hereafter  Free-State- 
producing  only.  With  this  surrender  would  have 
gone  the  original  basic  principle  of  the  government, 
the  rule  of  the  majority  constitutionally  expressed. 
There  would  have  been  little  use  for  another  Presi 
dential  election.  Popular  government,  if  it  had  ac 
cepted  the  Crittenden  Compromise,  would  logically 
have  voted  its  own  death  sentence.  A  deeper 
conflict  than  that  against  slavery  begins  to  appear. 
Hitherto  in  the  famous  Compromises,  the  rule  of 
the  majority  had  not  been  assailed,  but  had  been 
recognized  by  both  sides,  each  of  which  had  sought 
to  win  it  as  the  great  boon.  But  now  the  rule  of 
the  legal  majority  must  be  set  aside,  yea,  must  be 
made  to  set  itself  aside.  Really  the  minority  will 
dictate  to  the  majority,  and  the  very  existence 
of  popular  government  is  at  stake.  Compromise 
having  grappled  with  majority  rule  gets  flung  to 
the  earth  after  a  hurly-burly  contest  under  a 
variety  of  shapes  during  these  months.  The  last 
of  the  Compromises  seeking  to  keep  the  State- 
producing  Union  doubly  productive  of  States, 
free  and  slave,  never  came  to  reality,  though  it 
kept  floating  for  months  before  the  Folk-Soul  as  a 
kind  of  delusive  phantom,  which  was  but  the  de 
parted  ghost  of  the  old  order  hovering  with  longing 


LINCOLN'S  FIRST  INAUGURAL.  485 

and  love  over  the  scenes  of  its  once  throbbing  life. 
But  it  is  high  time  that  these  ghostly  performances 
be  laid,  and  that  the  unearthly  dance  of  the  spooks 
which  have  so  long  been  in  possession  of  the 
Capitol,  be  banned  forever.  And  here  comes 
Lincoln,  the  new  man  bringing  the  new  order,  with 
a  paper  in  his  pocket  proclaiming  the  same,  now 
to  be  inaugurated  as  President  of  the  United 
States.  Let  us  listen  to  his  memorable  document. 

XIV. 

Lincoln's   First   Inaugural. 

At  last  the  four  months7  agonizing  suspense  be 
gins  to  draw  to  a  close,  and  Lincoln  starts  out  on 
his  journey  from  Springfield  to  Washington.  This 
journey  was  a  continuous  line  of  speeches,  whose 
chief  object  was  to  say  nothing.  Not  a  great  suc 
cess  nor  a  great  failure  was  it,  under  the  condi 
tions:  to  keep  the  mind  always  shut  and  the 
mouth  always  open.  Once  indeed  he  did  say  that 
he  might  have  to  put  his  foot  down  firmly,  but  he 
immediately  apologized  for  his  indiscretion.  Of 
course  there  was  a  great  deal  of  criticism  on  what 
he  said,  and  more  yet  on  what  he  did  not  say,  for 
everybody  expected  a  hint  of  his  policy.  Then 
there  was  an  element  of  the  grotesque  in  Lincoln 
from  start  to  finish — both  conscious  and  uncon 
scious — and  it  did  not  fail  him  on  this  trip.  As  he 
moved  into  the  formal  East,  the  Mephistopheles 


486       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

of  the  Press  gloated  over  his  shocking  lack  of  dig 
nity  with  no  little  mockery.  How  different  from 
our  previous  two  Eastern  Presidents,  the  elegant 
Yankee  Franklin  Pierce,  dubbed  the  parlor  Presi 
dent,  and  smooth-worded  diplomatic  James  Buch 
anan  of  unfathomable  tortuosity.  And  then  just 
think  of  it!  The  President-elect  of  the  United 
States  wore  black  kid  gloves  in  New  York  at  the 
opera  on  a  festal  night.  "A  simple  Susan"  from 
the  Western  prairie  in  the  Presidential  chair!  cries 
the  best-known  Republican  editor  of  New  England, 
utterly  unable  to  penetrate  beneath  externals.  Of 
course  the  Southern  newspaper  triumphantly  com 
pared  Lincoln  with  the  cultured  and  experienced 
Jefferson  Davis,  President  of  the  new  Southern 
Confederacy.  Then  that  final  serio-comic  flight 
in  disguise  through  Baltimore  to  the  Capital !  Let 
the  whole  thing  pass,  for  really  it  amounts  to  noth 
ing,  as  if  Zeus  or  the  World-Spirit  was  having  a 
little  fun  all  to  himself  before  proceeding  to  the 
serious,  yea  tragic  business  at  hand. 

But  omitting  many  preliminary  incidents  of 
lesser  interest,  let  us  witness  Lincoln  on  March 
4th,  1861,  in  the  act  of  passing  into  the  Presi 
dency.  He  has  reached  the  east  portico  of  the 
Capital  where  he  is  to  take  the  oath  of  office  ad 
ministered  by  Chief-Justice  Taney,  the  author  of 
the  Dred  Scott  decision,  which,  Lincoln  declared 
not  long  after  its  promulgation,  must  be  reversed 
in  time  by  the  Court  itself  or  by  the  People.  That 


LINCOLN'S  FIRST  INAUGURAL.  487 

was  not  yet  four  years  since.  In  a  sense  they 
must  be  deemed  antagonists,  representing  two 
opposite  political  tendencies.  The  Dred  Scott  de 
cision  has  not  been  reversed  openly,  but  a  long 
stride  has  been  made  in  that  direction.  Antago 
nists  they  are,  and  some  months  later  Taney  will 
directly  tackle  Lincoln  in  the  Merry  man  case,  per 
taining  to  the  suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus.  But 
Lincoln  will  meet  triumphantly  in  deed  and  word 
the  Chief-Justice,  who,  with  the  narrowness  of 
the  technical  lawyer  would  assert  one  clause  of 
the  Constitution,  and  let  the  whole  Constitution 
and  the  government  back  of  it  go  to  ruin,  through 
the  hostility  of  its  destroyers  protected  by  the 
Supreme  Court.  Taney,  Jackson's  appointee,  grap 
ples  with  a  President  who  has  Jackson's  will  with 
out  his  willfulness,  and  the  Jacksonian  Chief- 
Justice  has  to  receive  an  application  of  the  most 
famous  of  Jackson's  utterances,  that  the  Nation's 
Executive,  as  co-ordinate  Power  of  the  Govern 
ment,  must  execute  the  Constitution  "as  he  under 
stands  it."  Still  very  gently,  though  very  firmly 
is  the  thing  done,  and  the  Chief-Justice  is  estopped 
from  using  the  Constitution  to  protect  the  de 
stroyers  of  the  Constitution.  There  is,  however, 
not  the  least  intention  of  interfering  with  the  Su 
preme  Court  in  its  legitimate  sphere,  for  Lincoln 
is  himself  a  lawyer  and  thoroughly  institutional  in 
spirit.  But  the  downwright  weakness  of  the  last 
two  Executives  (Pierce  and  Buchanan),  and  the 


488       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

flat  mediocrity  of  the  whole  line  of  post-Jacksonian 
Presidents  up  to  Lincoln,  had  fostered  in  Taney, 
who  was  Chief-Justice  during  this  whole  period 
an  exaggerated  sense  of  his  importance  which  the 
life-tenure  of  his  office  did  not  diminish.  The  re 
sult  was  some  tendency  to  usurpation,  some  bent 
to  take  in  hand  political  questions,  which  did  not 
belong  to  the  judicial  sphere.  This  tendency  cul 
minated  in  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  which  as  one 
Supreme  Judge  and  perhaps  the  ablest  (Curtis)  de 
clared,  lay  outside  the  jurisdiction  of  Court.  That 
was  also  the  opinion  of  Lincoln,  who  has,  therefore, 
to  recover  the  full  executive  Power  from  the  hands 
of  Taney,  or  at  least  to  prevent  the  possibility  of 
his  interference  with  the  Presidential  function  at 
critical  moments.  This  our  new  President  does 
effectually  both  in  action  and  in  argument  (see  his 
Message  to  Congress  July  4th,  1861).  So  Lincoln 
has  to  assert  his  great  office  against  the  man  who 
may  be  called  his  judicial  adversary,  who  now  ad 
ministers  to  him  the  oath  "to  preserve,  protect, 
and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States/ ' 
the  whole  of  it,  not  merely  a  part  of  it;  and  we 
may  also  hear  Lincoln  swear  to  Taney,  "I  will 
faithfully  execute  the  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States,"  the  whole  of  it,  not  merely  a  part 
of  it, 

Very  prominent  at  the  inauguration  we  must 
note  another  man,  entirely  different  from  Taney, 
yea  the  reverse  of  him,  but  still  a  lawyer — William 


LINCOLN'S  FIRST  INAUGURAL.  489 

H.  Seward.  Taney  represents  the  Formal  Law, 
to  the  last  degree  of  formality;  Seward  has  uttered 
the  Higher  Law,  quite  divested  of,  if  not  hostile  to 
all  Form.  One  thinks  that  in  this  respect  the  two 
halves  ought  to  be  put  together  and  made  over 
into  a  whole.  In  fact  they  are  essentially  synthe 
sized  in  Lincoln,  whom  we  have  already  seen  try 
ing  to  preserve  Form  and  Spirit,  even  when  these 
get  to  fighting  desperately.  Seward  has  been,  if 
not  quite  the  adversary,  at  least  the  rival  of  Lin 
coln  in  the  same  party.  At  present  he  is  the 
chosen  Secretary  of  State,  and  head  member  of 
the  new  cabinet.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Seward 
deemed  himself  not  only  the  right  hand  of  the  in 
coming  President,  but  practically  the  President 
himself.  His  private  correspondence  of  this  time 
has  been  published,  and  it  makes  him  appear  to 
himself  the  central  power  as  well  as  the  savior  of 
the  country.  To  his  mind  the  Presidency  had 
become  divided  like  himself;  there  was  indeed  the 
formal  President  Lincoln,  but  the  Higher  Presi 
dent  was  Seward.  And  his  Section,  the  old  North- 
Eastern  States,  held  the  same  opinion  of  his  su 
premacy.  The  tall  Illinois  sucker  might  perform 
the  Presidential  motions,  but  Seward  was  to  pull 
the  strings.  So  Lincoln  is  yet  to  have  quite  a 
little  tussle  with  his  own  chief  officer,  who,  how 
ever,  in  spite  of  his  egotism,  has  the  transcendent 
merit  of  being  able  to  learn  his  lesson,  and  who 
will,  after  more  experience,  frankly  declare  of  his 


490       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

superior:  "The  President  is  the  best  of  us."  And 
Lincoln  when  he  gets  Seward  duly  placed  will  in 
turn  fully  recognize  his  great  Secretary  and  cling 
to  him  against  all  opposition.  So  the  new  Presi 
dent  at  his  inauguration  has  before  him  those  two 
somewhat  dislocated,  yet  opposite  talents,  Taney 
and  Seward,  the  excessive  Formal  Law  and  the 
Higher  Law;  but  he  will  be  able  to  subordinate 
both,  and  have  them  do  their  proper  work,  each 
in  his  own  sphere,  toiling  at  his  allotted  task. 
Characteristic  is  the  report  that  Taney  once  de 
clared  at  Washington,  that  he  would  refuse  to  ad 
minister  the  Constitutional  oath  to  Seward,  if  the 
latter  were  elected  President. 

It  is  important  to  observe  that  Lincoln  in  his 
Inaugural  does  not  fail  to  glance  at  the  two  col 
liding  Laws,  and  perchance  indirectly  at  their 
representatives  before  him.  The  Higher  Law  had 
been  unfolded  and  promulgated  chiefly  in  connec 
tion  with  the  Fugitive  Slave  enactments.  Lincoln 
reads  the  clause  of  the  Constitution  which  deals 
with  persons  "held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State 
and  escaping  into  another,"  and  which  commands 
their  rendition.  This  Enacted  Law  must  be 
obeyed,  especially  by  all  who  take  an  oath  to  sup 
port  the  Constitution,  notwithstanding  the  Higher 
Law .  From  Seward  we  may  then  imagine  Lincoln 
turning  to  Taney,  in  thought  if  not  in  look.  Says 
the  Inaugural:  "If  the  policy  of  the  Government 
upon  vital  questions  affecting  the  whole  People  is 


LINCOLN'S  FIRST  INAUGURAL.  491 

to  be  irrevocably  fixed  by  decisions  of  the  Su 
preme  Court,  the  instant  they  are  made,  the  People 
will  have  ceased  to  be  their  own  rulers,  having  to 
that  extent  practically  resigned  their  Government 
into  the  hands  of  that  eminent  tribunal."  No 
such  judicial  autocracy  can  be  permitted  in  accord 
with  the  Constitution  itself.  So  much  for  these 
two  extremes,  Taney  and  Seward,  with  their  one 
sided,  deeply  colliding  principles,  who  are  now  in 
presence  of  their  higher  synthesis  and  master. 

The  key-note  of  the  inaugural  is  the  Primacy  of 
the  Union,  with  the  consequent  denial  of  the  right 
of  Secession,  and  the  consequent  affirmation  of 
the  right  of  Coercion,  even  if  this  last  is  very 
gently  put.  It  is  noteworthy  as  indicating  the 
drift  of  Lincoln's  thought  that  he  places  together 
the  two  opposite  Higher  Laws,  the  one  in  the 
North  which  resists  the  Fugitive  Slave  clause  of 
the  Constitution,  and  the  one  in  the  South  which 
resists  the  Slave  Trade  clause  of  the  Constitution. 
In  both  cases  it  is  "the  moral  sense  of  the  commu 
nity"  which  challenges  the  established  Law.  In 
Massachusetts  it  is  difficult  legally  to  condemn  the 
slave,  in  South  Carolina  it  is  difficult  legally  to 
condemn  the  slaver,  though  both  be  brought  to 
trial.  Lincoln  fails  not  to  express  his  own  moral 
conviction  against  slavery,  though  he  must  execute 
the  Constitution  as  it  stands.  But  at  present  the 
conservation  of  the  Union  must  be  his  supreme 
object,  everything  else  is  subordinate.  "No  State 


492        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

of  its  own  mere  motion  can  lawfully  get  out  of  the 
Union;"  State  caprice  must  be  subjected  to  law. 
"In  view  of  the  Constitution,  the  Union  is  un 
broken,"  in  spite  of  all  this  secession. 

But  there  is  a  third  person  present  at  this  In 
augural  more  interesting  and  more  important  than 
Seward  or  Taney  or  any  other  man  in  the  Nation 
except  the  President  himself.  That  is  Lincoln's 
life-long  antitype,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  who  has 
taken  a  front  seat  on  the  stand  just  behind  Lin 
coln  as  the  latter  reads  to  the  assembled  thous 
ands  in  a  clear,  firm,  penetrating  voice  his  ad 
dress.  Typical  was  the  position  and  attitude  of 
the  Little  Giant,  who  said  to  an  acquaintance 
that  he  intended  to  show  "his  determination  to 
stand  by  the  new  Administration  in  the  perform 
ance  of  its  first  great  duty  to  maintain  the 
Union."  Upon  this  point  it  cannot  be  too  often 
repeated  that  he  and  Lincoln  were  at  one  from 
the  beginning.  Douglas  now  advances  openly  to 
the  support  of  his  old  antagonist  upon  the  over 
shadowing  issue  of  the  time,  and  brings  with  him 
self,  if  need  be,  a  million  of  bayonets.  And  what 
is  more  important,  there  comes  in  his  train  a 
united  North,  to  which  he  alone  adds  a  majority 
of  the  people  of  the  Border  Slave  States.  The 
Presidential  election  of  1860  had  shown  the  pro 
digious  personal  influence  of  Douglas,  which  was 
probably  greater  than  that  of  Lincoln  at  the  time 
of  the  Inaugural. 


LINCOLN'S  FIRST  INAUGURAL.  493 

And  now  occurs  an  incident,  trivial  enough  ex 
ternally,  which  impressed  the  thousands  there 
present,  who  saw  it,  which  has  struck  the  millions 
who  have  since  read  it,  and  still  read  it,  as  some 
thing  deeply  symbolic  of  the  two  antitypes  as  well 
as  of  the  Nation  and  its  coming  destiny.  Lincoln 
rose  to  read  his  address,  with  cane  and  manuscript 
in  hand;  but  he  was  at  a  loss  where  to  place  his 
high  silk  hat,  that  original  Post  Office  of  his,  every 
available  spot  being  occupied.  As  he  looked  help 
lessly  around,  Douglas  sprang  up  and  relieved  him 
of  his  encumbrance,  remarking  to  a  lady  near  by: 
"If  I  can't  be  President,  I  can  at  least  hold  his 
hat."  It  was  indeed  a  very  beautiful  act  of 
courtesy,  but  in  it  Douglas  also  expressed  his  will 
ingness,  yea,  his  eagerness  to  help  the  man  who 
had  been  hitherto  his  chief  rival  in  the  latter's 
supreme  emergency,  which  was  also  that  of  the 
Nation.  Such  was  the  symbolic  act  of  Douglas 
at  Lincoln's  inauguration,  as  significant  and  as 
eloquent  in  its  way  as  the  President's  address, 
which  it  reinforced  mightily  with  its  unspoken 
message. 

Nor  should  we  fail  to  see  that  Lincoln's  Inau 
gural  has  its  relation  to  Douglas,  even  more  de 
cisively  than  to  Taney  and  Seward.  In  it  we  find 
the  former  differences  between  Lincoln  and 
Douglas  hardly  mentioned,  certainly  not  empha 
sized.  The  territorial  question  is  passed  over 
with  one  or  two  non-partisan  allusions.  The  con- 


494       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

flict  of  the  Illinois  Debate  of  1858  is  sunk  in  a  far 
deeper  struggle,  upon  which  both  the  former  an 
tagonists  are  practically  united.  In  fact,  Lincoln 
made  changes  in  the  first  draft  of  his  Inaugural 
which  would  indicate  that  he  had  Douglas  in 
view.  He  wrote  at  Springfield:  "Having  been 
elected  on  the  Chicago  platform,  I  hold  myself 
bound  to  follow  the  principles  therein  declared" 
— the  main  principle  of  that  platform  being  the 
Congressional  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  Terri 
tories  as  against  Douglas's  Popular  Sovereignty. 
This  partisan  utterance  Lincoln  cut  out  at  Wash 
ington,  Seward  suggesting  it,  and  still  more,  the 
new  situation  imperiously  dictating  it.  Other 
changes  from  the  original  draft  (see  it  in  Nicolay 
and  Hay's  Life  of  Lincoln,  Vol.  III.)  point  to  the 
same  source  of  adjustment.  For  Lincoln  realized 
more  than  ever  when  he  reached  the  Capital,  the 
pivotal  position  of  Douglas,  who  wielded  the 
power  of  uniting  or  of  separating  the  North.  The 
Inaugural,  therefore,  has  little  or  nothing  to  which 
Douglas  could  object.  Indeed,  it  asserts  the  pre 
servation  of  the  Double  Union ;  it  has  not  a  word 
about  this  Nation  "becoming  all  one  thing  or  all 
the  other."  Even  the  Union  is  not  affirmed  to 
be  Free-State  producing  only.  These  two  princi 
ples  are  not,  however,  abjured  by  Lincoln,  but  are 
held  in  abeyance.  For  his  great  immediate  prob 
lem  is  to  unite  the  parties  of  the  North  against 
secession,  and  to  join  to  them  the  Unionists  of 


LINCOLN'S  FIRST  INAUGURAL.  495 

the  Border  Slave  States.  The  Inaugural  is  skill 
fully  adjusted  to  that  end.  The  man  whom  he 
has  to  win  above  all  others  is  Douglas,  who  in 
many  ways  has  shown  himself  ready  to  be  won. 
He  called  upon  Lincoln  at  the  White  House  to 
pay  his  respects  to  the  new  President,  and  there  is 
little  doubt  that  he  whispered  in  the  ear  of  his 
successful  rival  his  support  of  every  effort  to  main 
tain  the  Union.  In  fact  there  had  probably  been 
some  communication  between  them  before  inau 
guration  day.  At  any  rate  the  Inaugural  seeks  to 
avoid  giving  any  offence  to  Douglas  and  his  fol 
lowers.  In  the  Senate  two  days  after  its  delivery 
Douglas  nobly  declared:  "It  is  a  peace  offering 
rather  than  a  war  message." 

Still  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  two  Giants  were 
as  yet  completely  harnessed  together  into  one 
team.  Both  were  indeed  pulling  for  the  Union, 
but  each  was  still  inclined  to  reach  the  goal  by  a 
somewhat  different  road.  Douglas  continued  to 
be  openly  for  the  Double  Union,  which  he  sought 
to  restore  by  peace.  Hence  on  March  15th,  he 
offered  a  resolution  in  the  Senate  to  withdraw  the 
United  States  troops  from  all  forts  in  the  seceded 
States  except  Key  West  and  Tortugas,  which  he 
still  deemed  national.  Says  he:  "I  proclaim 
boldly  the  policy  of  those  with  whom  I  act;  we  are 
for  peace.  .  .  .  War  is  disunion;  war  is  final, 
eternal  separation."  So  Douglas  unquestionably 
thought;  and  such  seemed  to  him  at  that  time  the 


496       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

only  road  back  to  Union,  even  if  the  years  will 
prove  him  mistaken.  In  one  way  his  policy  was 
correct:  We,  the  Unionists,  must  not  be  the  ag 
gressors,  if  we  would  unite  the  whole  North  and 
divide  the  South.  In  the  same  speech  (March 
15th)  he  opposed  the  blockade  of  the  Southern 
ports  as  illegal  and  impolitic.  Says  he:  "I  cannot 
consent  that  the  President  of  the  United  States 
may,  at  his  discretion,  blockade  the  ports  of  the 
United  States,  or  of  any  other  country."  Thus 
he  still  shows  a  point  of  conflict  with  Lincoln.  His 
purpose  is  manifestly  twofold;  he  would,  on  the 
one  hand,  restore  the  old  Union  through  peace, 
but  on  the  other  especially,  he  would  hold  back 
the  Administration  from  precipitating  the  armed 
collision  by  giving  the  first  blow.  In  the  former 
case  he  did  not,  and  could  not,  succeed;  in  the 
second,  he  succeeded,  for  the  South  soon  commits 
the  pivotal  act  of  aggression. 

And  now  the  reader  has  to  ask:  Did  Lincoln  on 
his  part  appreciate  the  generous  support  given 
him  by  his  ancient  rival,  or  did  he  still  feel  that 
lurking  suspicion  of  Douglas  which  had  so  long 
hounded  him  like  a  curse?  We  have  no  statement 
of  Lincoln  on  this  point;  but  we  may  take  as  an 
indirect  reflection  of  his  feeling  the  view  of  his 
two  private  secretaries  in  their  biography  of  him: 
"Recognizing  his  defeat,  Douglas  was  by  no  means 
conquered.  Already  in  a  Senate  debate  he  had 
opened  his  trenches  to  undermine  and  wreck  Lin- 


LINCOLN'S  FIRST  INAUGURAL.  497 

coin's  Administration.  Already  he  had  set  his 
subtle  sophistry  to  demonstrate  that  the  revenue 
laws  gave  the  Executive  no  authority  for  co 
ercion.  .  .  .  His  speech  of  the  15th  of  March 
was  only  a  new  instance  of  his  readiness  to  risk 
his  consistency  and  his  fame  for  a  plausible  but 
delusive  move  in  party  strategy."  (Nicolay  and 
Hay's  Life  of  Lincoln,  Vol.  4,  pp.  80,  82).  The 
language  of  this  extract  recalls  Lincoln's  designa 
tion  of  Douglas  as  "the  sapper  and  miner." 

We  cannot  help  thinking  that  his  old  jealousy 
still  crops  out  in  these  words  of  men  used  to  writing 
down  his  dictations.  But  the  attitude  of  Douglas 
in  his  speech  of  March  15th,  has,  to  the  impartial 
reader,  a  different  motive  from  that  here  given. 
He  did  not  pretend  to  be  a  Republican,  he  was 
still  for  the  Dual  Union  restored  through  peace. 
It  is  true  that  Douglas  was  a  "miner  and  sapper" 
of  all  political  parties  as  such,  his  own  party  in 
cluded;  but  he  never  failed  to  draw  the  line  at  the 
Union,  which  he  would  not  breach.  And  even 
now  his  deepest  motive  is  to  unite  the  North  and 
divide  the  South  by  holding  the  Administration 
back  from  any  act  of  aggression.  Forbear,  for 
bear,  till  the  South  strikes  the  first  blow  against 
the  Union,  and  we  shall  then  all  be  of  one  mind — 
that  is  the  true  explanation  of  Douglas,  and  con 
sistent  with  all  his  recent  sayings  and  doings.  He 
is,  accordingly,  in  the  deepest  of  him,  co-operating 
with  Lincoln  and  the  Union,  though  he  marches 

32 


498        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

along  his  own  road  in  consonance  with  his  own 
political  principle.  And  it  is  well  that  he  so 
marches,  for  he,  the  masterful  leader,  is  bringing 
with  him  his  own  party  in  the  Northern  and  Bor 
der  States,  and  is  thus  uniting  the  forces  of  the 
Union. 

So  we  still  have  to  declare  that  Lincoln  has  not 
yet  attained  the  full  appreciation  of  the  deepest 
strain  in  the  character  of  his  life's  incarnate  coun 
terpart,  of  his  other  Self,  of  his  antitype,  Douglas. 
Lincoln  does  not  yet  see  that  the  time  has  brought 
together  the  colliding  opposites  of  a  quarter  of  a 
century  in  a  deeper  unity,  has  joined  the  two  per 
sonal  halves  in  a  greater  whole;  Lincoln  does  not 
yet  see  that  himself  and  Douglas  have  at  last 
reached  down  to  that  common  institutional  sub 
strate  in  which  they  are  both  of  one  spirit.  But 
that  is  just  what  Douglas  recognizes,  proclaims 
and  reinforces  in  Lincoln,  despite  a  difference  of 
policy.  The  universal  love,  which  has  been  the 
chief  discipline  of  the  inner  life  for  Lincoln,  cannot 
quite  become  universal;  the  one  exception  will 
rise  to  the  surface  after  being  consigned  seemingly 
again  and  again  to  the  abysses  of  the  soul's  ob 
livion.  The  spiritual  problem  of  Lincoln  is  to  de 
racinate  that  unworthy  tormenting  jealousy  which 
he  has  so  long  felt  and  still  feels  toward  the  rival 
of  a  life-time,  who  is  now  in  the  deepest  matter 
his  voluntary  co-worker.  0  Lincoln,  can  you  not 
requite  Douglas's  faith  in  you,  repeatedly  uttered 


THEIR  LAST  MEETING.  499 

in  word  and  deed,  with  an  equal  faith  in  him?  To 
be  sure  he  has  asked  no  such  requital  from 
you,  but  has  gone  ahead  in  the  support  of  you 
for  the  sake  of  the  common  cause  even  under 
your  suspicion.  Is  it  not  time  that  you  give  back 
a  little  of  what  you  get,  and  clean  out  that  one 
nook  of  uncharitableness  in  your  otherwise  ten 
derly  forgiving,  unavenging  heart? 

But  while  we  may  conceive  the  interrogation 
to  be  pending  before  Lincoln's  conscience,  the 
rapid  whirl  of  events  has  brought  on  the  grand 
opening  act  of  the  coming  drama — the  firing  on 
Fort  Sumter.  The  South  has  struck  the  first 
blow,  has  done  the  first  unequivocal  deed  of  vio 
lence,  and  the  Civil  War  has  actually  began.  The 
new  situation  is  suddenly  uncurtained ;  what  Doug 
las  insisted  upon  waiting  for,  has  come  with  a 
rush;  what  Lincoln  tried  to  prevent  has  happened 
anyhow,  by  the  decree  of  a  mightier  Giant  than 
either  or  both  of  the  human  Giants,  mightier  in 
deed  than  the  Nation  itself.  The  horologe  of  the 
World's  History  is  tolling  a  new  epoch  in  the  re 
verberation  of  the  cannon  over  Charleston  Harbor. 

XV. 

Their    Last   Meeting. 

The  five  weeks  between  the  Inaugural  and  the 
attack  on  Sumter  witnessed  Lincoln's  only  time  of 
peace,  and  it  was  not  very  peaceful.  Prepara- 


500       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

tions  for  war  resounded  from  the  Cotton  States. 
There  were  still  many  phantoms  of  Compromise 
floating  about  on  the  air,  distracting  the  pub 
lic  mind  but  utterly  unreal  and  unrealizable. 
Hardly  more  than  spectres  they  were  of  the  old 
Double  Union  now  giving  up  the  ghost  which 
somehow  still  tarried  on  this  side  of  Styx,  and 
kept  bothering  Lincoln  a  good  deal  and  others 
even  more .  But  at  the  roar  of  the  gunnery  from 
Sumter  echoing  through  the  land,  they  took  flight 
to  Hades,  there  to  be  imprisoned  forever,  except 
when  they  may  be  evoked  to  flit  a  momentary 
shadow  across  the  page  of  History. 

During  this  time  Lincoln  had  also  a  kind  of  do 
mestic  struggle  in  getting  control  of  his  cabinet^ 
which  contained  past  competitors  with  him  for 
the  Presidency,  and  possible  future  candidates 
against  him.  Especially  Seward  and  Chase  were 
prominent  in  this  peculiar  struggle.  But  Lincoln's 
chief  contest  during  these  five  weeks  was  with  the 
State  of  Virginia,  mother  of  the  Union  and  of 
Presidents,  now  represented  by  her  convention  of 
unionists,  who  were  going  to  dictate  to  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  Union  or  turn  disunionists.  The  Vir 
ginia  consciousness  has  become  painfully  dual: 
secession  is  wrong,  but  this  wrong  cannot  be 
righted  without  committing  wrong.  Nay  more,  if 
the  Nation  dares  right  the  wrong  of  secession, 
Virginia  herself  will  secede,  will  do  the  very  act 
which  she  declares  to  be  wrong,  and  will  join  sim- 


THEIR  LAST  MEETING.  501 

ilar  wrong-doers  whom  she  has  condemned,  and 
even  will  lead  other  States  into  doing  her  wrong. 
All  this  she  may  deem  a  sophistical  juggle  of 
words;  but  the  inexorable  logic  of  History  will 
flay  her  for  her  deed  more  than  any  other  State, 
and  leave  her  rent  in  twain  forever — the  lasting 
realization  of  her  dual  conduct.  Such  is  the  his 
toric  fact;  does  it  not  evidence  the  penalty  of 
her  wrong  imposed  by  the  Supreme  Tribunal  of 
the  World-Spirit?  Lincoln,  grandson  of  Virginia, 
tried  to  rescue  her  from  that  awful  mill  of  the 
Gods,  but  she  would  not  hear  him,  and  so  she  was 
ground  almost  into  the  dust  of  the  grave,  by  the 
outer  conflict  as  well  as  by  her  own  inner  contra 
diction. 

Lincoln  has  resolved  to  apply  a  little  test  to 
that  double-acting  Virginia  Convention  which  is 
for  the  Union  but  against  its  maintenance,  and 
which  has  shown  itself  so  completely  devoid  of 
the  old  statesmanship  of  the  Commonwealth.  He 
is  going  to  "send  bread  to  Anderson,"  who  badly 
needs  it,  having  only  "pork  and  water"  for  ra 
tions.  Let  South  Carolina,  and  Virginia  too  if 
she  will,  construe  that  gentle  act  of  humanity  to 
relieve  a  few  starving  soldiers  in  a  time  of  peace 
as  an  act  of  war,  and  open  fire;  one  thing  is  cer 
tain  :  the  first  shot  will  unite  the  North  and  divide 
the  South.  Very  dexterous  and  timely  is  this 
plan  of  Lincoln;  Virginia  must  quit  her  balanc 
ing  between  two  opposite  principles  which  has 


502       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

kept  the  whole  Nation  in  a  state  of  suspense  and 
paralysis.  She  must  now  decide  whether  her  hate 
of  Coercion  at  the  least  is  stronger  than  her  love 
of  the  Union  at  the  largest.  Another  even  deeper 
question  lies  before  her :  Shall  the  rule  of  the  ma 
jority  or  of  the  minority  prevail  in  this  Nation? 
In  his  epoch-making  Inaugural  Lincoln  has  not 
failed  to  drive  home  this  point:  "the  rule  of  a 
minority  as  a  permanent  arrangement  is  wholly 
inadmissible;  so  that,  rejecting  the  majority  prin 
ciple,  anarchy  or  despotism  is  all  that  is  left." 
Virginia  shows  that  she  will  dictate  to  the  ma 
jority  or  go  out  of  the  Union,  and  that  is  her 
Unionism,  which,  it  is  plain,  must  pass  through  a 
complete  regeneration. 

Some  6,000  gallant  South  Carolinians  opened 
their  batteries  upon  the  breadless  soldiers  of  Fort 
Sumter,  just  77  in  number  (exclusive  of  51  non- 
combatants,  laborers  and  musicians)  on  the  12th 
of  April,  1861,  and  precipitated  the  Civil  War. 
Anderson,  after  a  stout-hearted  defense,  capitu 
lated  on  the  13th  with  the  honors  of  war;  he  and 
his  garrison  sailed  North  the  next  day.  Such  was 
the  result  of  Lincoln's  attempt  to  "send  bread  to 
Anderson"  who  had  to  make  his  fight  on  "pork 
and  water."  South  Carolina  possesses  Fort  Sum 
ter,  the  first  blow  has  been  struck,  coercion  in  its 
least  possible  form  has  been  resisted  by  arms,  the 
alignment  of  both  sides  for  battle  at  once  takes 
place. 


THEIR  LAST  MEETING.  503 

The  fall  of  Sumter  was  known  in  Washington 
fully  by  Sunday,  April  the  14th,  and  was  read  on 
the  same  day  throughout  the  country.  Indigna 
tion  from  all  parts  began  to  roll  in  oceanic  waves 
toward  the  Capital  as  the  center  of  power.  The 
cabinet  met  and  Lincoln  read  to  them  his  draft  of 
a  proclamation  which  called  75,000  militia  into 
service  for  three  months,  and  convened  Congress 
in  extra  session  on  the  coming  4th  of  July.  Excited 
multitudes  streamed  into  the  White  House  to 
hear  what  might  be  the  word  of  the  leader;  tele 
grams  began  to  pour  in  from  the  Northern  States 
with  strong  advice  and  stronger  offers;  Senators 
and  Representatives  tarrying  in  Washington  after 
the  adjournment  of  Congress  pledged  their  con 
stituencies  to  the  support  of  the  Government .  It 
was  known  that  one  of  those  remaining  behind  in 
the  Capital  and  watching  closely  the  rapid  whirl 
of  events  was  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Him  above 
all  men  Lincoln  probably  most  desired  to  see  just 
then,  but  hardly  dared  openly  to  send  for  him. 
Douglas,  however,  did  not  wait  for  the  invitation; 
through  a  friend  he  requested  an  interview  with 
Lincoln  on  that  same  Sunday  evening  at  the  Ex 
ecutive  Mansion  between  seven  and  eight  o'clock 
P.  M.  At  the  appointed  time  Douglas  appeared, 
and  Lincoln  was  ready  also,  having  dismissed  or 
evaded  the  importunate  throng  of  visitors. 

It  is  recorded  that  they  sat  together  in  private 
conversation  for  nearly  two  hours,  no  other  per- 


504     ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

son  being  present .  Nothing  of  what  they  said  has 
been  handed  down,  as  far  as  we  have  been  able  to 
find.  Lincoln  seems  never  to  have  talked  about 
it  afterwards.  We  may  well  suppose  that  he, 
first  of  all,  submitted  his  proclamation  to  the  keen 
eye  of  Douglas  for  suggestion  and  approval.  As 
already  said,  the  word  of  Douglas  meant  a  united 
North  and  a  divided  South,  and  Lincoln  knew  it ; 
hence  he  rightly  felt  that  before  he  sent  forth 
that  war-call  to  the  country,  he  must  have  on  it 
the  stamp  of  Douglas.  And  he  gets  it.  The 
next  morning  along  with  the  proclamation,  the 
newspapers  gave  the  account  of  the  Lincoln-Doug 
las  interview,  and  the  authorized  statement  of 
Douglas  that  "he  was  prepared  to  sustain  the 
President  in  the  exercise  of  all  his  Constitutional 
functions  to  preserve  the  Union  and  maintain  the 
Government,  and  defend  the  Federal  Capital/ ' 
"though  he  was  still  unalterably  opposed  to  the  ad 
ministration  on  all  its  political  issues,"  that  is,  on 
the  special  objects  of  the  Republican  party  in  re 
gard  to  the  Territories.  Let  it  be  noted  that  this 
exception  is  really  in  favor  of  Lincoln  and  the 
Union,  for  Douglas  could  hardly  have  made  his 
followers  Republicans,  at  least  not  so  suddenly, 
but  he  could  and  did  keep  them  firm  Unionists, 
and  in  so  far  supporters  of  the  administration. 
The  fact  is  that  since  the  inauguration,  Lincoln 
and  Douglas  were  both  pursuing  the  same  end 
though  by  different  roads :  to  keep  the  peace  in  all 


THEIR  LAST  MEETING.  505 

forbearance  till  the  South  breaks  it  first,  to  the  eye 
of  the  whole  Nation.  To  be  sure,  distinguished 
Southern  writers  since  that  time  have  maintained 
that  the  bombardment  of  Sumter  was  not  the  first 
aggressive  act  of  the  war,  but  resistance  to  the 
previous  aggression  of  the  North,  that  it  was 
merely  defensive,  and  so  on,  with  varied  subtle 
argumentation.  But  the  Nation  as  a  whole  did 
not  then,  and  does  not  still  take  that  view,  and  it 
was  the  Nation  which  practically  had  to  decide 
the  matter. 

So  much,  then,  must  have  been  agreed  upon  in 
that  interview  between  Douglas  and  Lincoln;  but 
anything  else?  Undoubtedly,  though  the  manner 
of  it  will  probably  remain  forever  unknown.  We 
may,  therefore,  be  permitted  to  infer  from  their 
subsequent  action  their  conversation,  imagining  it 
to  culminate  in  a  dramatic  scene  when  the  Little 
Giant,  impulsively  generous,  jumps  up  from  his 
seat,  throws  back  that  leonine  head  of  his  with  its 
massive  shock  of  hair,  and  thus  bursts  out  to  his 
life-long  rival : 

Douglas.  Mr.  President,  I  wish  to  enlist  under 
you,  in  obedience  to  that  call. 

Lincoln  (rising).  Then  you  will  be  my  first  en 
listed  man  in  the  war  for  the  Union. 

Douglas.  That  is  just  what  I  wish  to  be.  I 
am  at  your  service. 

Lincoln.  Well,  to  confess  to  you  my  secret 
thought,  I  have  had  you  uppermost  in  my  mind 


506       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

for  weeks.  You  can  do  more  for  me  than  any 
other  living  man. 

Douglas.  What  are  your  orders? 

Lincoln.  I  have  already  thought  of  asking  you 
to  go  to  our  common  North- West  and  unify  its 
people  in  one  mass  of  living  valor,  which  will 
sweep  down  the  Mississippi,  in  case  of  necessity, 
and  keep  its  great  Valley,  the  seat  of  the  coming 
Nation,  in  the  Union. 

Douglas.  You  outline  my  own  purpose.  I  had 
already  intended  to  do  something  of  that  sort 
myself. 

Lincoln.  Yes,  I  note  that  our  minds  at  last 
begin  to  run  together.  But  I  want  to  say  that 
you  are  the  only  man,  in  my  opinion,  who  can  do 
that  deed,  the  most  important  national  deed  to 
be  done  just  at  present. 

Douglas.  Yes,  I  note  that  you  begin  at  last  to 
find  me  out.  But  I  must  be  off;  I  think  we 
understand  each  other  now.  Good-bye;  in  a  few 
days  I  shall  start  for  my  new  task,  which  I  shall 
perform,  if  it  kills  me. 

Lincoln.  God  speed  you,  the  first  enlisted  man 
in  the  cause  of  the  Union,  and  I  must  add,  the 
greatest.  WTith  you  I  seem  already  to  have  won; 
without  you  I  would  hardly  have  dared  to  start. 

Bending  a  courteous  nod  of  the  head  Douglas 
springs  out  of  the  door  into  the  night  and  soon 
disappears  in  the  surging  multitude.  This  was  the 
last  important  meeting  (Douglas  seems  to  have 


LAST  DEED  AND  DEATH  OF  DOUGLAS.     507 

made  a  parting  call  a  day  or  two  later)  of  the  two 
great  rivals,  whose  hitherto  antipathetic  lives  have 
now  attained,  through  long  and  strong  opposition, 
that  common  bond  of  sympathy  which  underlay 
both  from  the  beginning. 

Such,  then,  is  the  final  outcome  of  our  two  anti 
types,  whose  contradictory  careers  we  have  fol 
lowed  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  till 
they  have  reached  and  recognized  their  unity, 
which  is  likewise  the  unity  of  their  country.  So 
long  has  it  taken  them  to  find  each  other  out. 
One  cannot  help  asking  whether  Lincoln,  with  his 
innate  tendency  to  brooding  and  melancholy,  may 
not  have  afterwards  had  some  resurgences  of 
doubt  and  jealousy  of  his  old  competitor.  That 
single  exception  to  his  magnanimity,  that  excepted 
Douglas,  whose  distrust  had  struck  such  deep  roots 
into  Lincoln's  character,  could  probably  not  be 
eradicated  at  once.  But  one  fact  stands  out 
strongly:  Douglas  was  soon  speeding  westward 
from  the  Capital  on  his  new  mission,  which  was  also 
destined  to  be  the  climax  and  the  conclusion  of 
his  life's  work. 

XVI. 

Last  Deed  and  Death  of  Douglas. 

Along  his  route  everywhere  it  soon  became 
known  that  Douglas  was  coming — now  the  out 
spoken  defender  of  the  Union  under  the  call  of  the 
newly  elected  President,  whose  most  strongly  sup- 


508       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

ported  opponent  he  had  been  in  the  recent  can 
vas.  Thus  he  represented  in  person  by  his  deed 
the  unity  of  political  parties  for  the  Union.  A 
word  from  such  a  source  was  intensely  longed 
after  by  the  Folk-Soul  wherever  he  went,  for  he 
now  voiced  the  united  Nation  better  than  any 
other  public  man. 

Very  suggestive  are  his  remarks  at  Bellair, 
Ohio,  April  22d:  "The  proposition  now  is  to 
separate  these  United  States  into  little  petty  con 
federacies.  First  divide  them  into  two;  and  then, 
when  either  party  gets  beaten  at  the  next  election, 
subdivide  again :  then,  whenever  one  gets  beaten 
again,  another  subdivision  ....  and  so  it 
will  go  on."  This  is  the  logic  (or  rather  the  dia 
lectic)  of  Secession;  the  separation,  if  allowed  as  a 
principle,  must  continue  indefinitely,  seeking  to 
make  itself  universal.  Lincoln  had  touched  upon 
the  same  thought  in  his  Inaugural :  "If  a  minority 
will  secede  rather  than  acquiesce,  they  make  a 
precedent  which  will  in  turn  divide  and  ruin  them; 
for  a  minority  of  their  own  will  secede  from  them 
whenever  a  majority  refuses  to  be  controlled  by 
such  minority.  ...  All  who  cherish  disunion 
sentiments  are  being  educated  to  the  exact  tem 
per  of  doing  this.  .  .  .  Plainly  the  central 
idea  of  secession  is  the  essence  of  anarchy."  Thus 
Lincoln  strikingly  sets  forth  the  inner  dialectical 
process  of  Secession,  which  is  strongly  affirmed 
by  Douglas  in  his  foregoing  speech:  "It  is  not  a 


LAST  DEED  AND  DEATH  OF  DOUGLAS.     509 

question  of  union  or  disunion;  it  is  a  question  of 
order,  of  the  stability  of  Government,  of  the 
peace  of  communities.  The  whole  social  system 
is  threatened  with  destruction  and  disruption." 
There  is  no  doubt  that  these  words  of  Douglas 
appealed  mightily  to  the  Folk-Soul  of  the  North 
ern  and  Border  States.  He  was  a  living  example 
of  his  own  doctrine;  he  had  been  beaten  at  the 
polls  in  the  recent  election,  and  now  he  proclaims 
acquiescence  in  the  rule  of  the  majority  as  the 
very  principle  of  republican  government,  and  in 
deed  of  all  peace  and  order.  Very  striking  is  his 
contrast  with  the  other  defeated  candidates,  both 
Southerners,  Bell  and  Breckinridge,  who  at  last 
became  secessionists,  preferring  minority  rule  to 
coercion,  or  to  the  maintenance  of  majority  rule 
in  the  Nation.  Lincoln,  the  victorious  candidate, 
even  though  President,  could  not  have  produced 
by  any  speech  the  overwhelming  popular  impres 
sion  which  Douglas  now  excited  wherever  he 
went.  For  he  still  upheld  that  majority  rule 
which  had  turned  him  under,  while  Lincoln,  up 
holding  it,  was  felt  to  be  also  upholding  his  own 
personal  interest  and  victory.  Prodigious  was 
the  response  of  the  whole  People,  not  only  to  the 
doctrine  of  Douglas  (which  was  the  same  as  that 
of  Lincoln),  but  also  to  his  magnanimity  as  well 
as  to  his  unselfish  patriotism.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  Douglas  now  rises  to  the  most  glorious 
period  of  his  total  career;  his  very  defeat  he  turns 


510       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

into  a  triumph  greater  than  that  of  his  successful 
opponent. 

And  so  he  continues  his  journey  to  the  North- 
West,  the  united  folk  of  all  parties  everywhere 
hugging  his  path  and  begging  a  word  from  that 
heart  which  could  show  so  much  renunciation  for 
the  good  of  the  country.  At  Columbus  he  was 
called  out  in  the  night  by  a  regiment  marching 
to  the  front,  for  a  kind  of  benediction. 
When  he  reached  Springfield  he  made  before  the 
Illinois  Legislature  a  speech,  whose  extraordinary 
power  and  influence  have  been  celebrated  by  a 
reporter  otherwise  hostile  to  him,  as  follows :  "It 
was  like  a  blast  of  thunder.  I  do  not  think  that 
it  is  possible  for  a  human  being  to  produce  a  more 
prodigious  effect  with  spoken  words  than  he  pro 
duced  on  those  who  were  within  the  sound  of  his 
voice.  He  was  standing  in  the  same  place  where 
I  had  first  heard  Mr.  Lincoln.  .  .  .  That 
speech  hushed  the  breath  of  treason  in  every  cor 
ner  of  the  State."  (Horace  White  in  Herndon  & 
Weik's  Lincoln,  II.,  pp.  126-7).  But  his  reception 
at  Chicago,  his  home,  was  the  most  significant  and 
triumphant  of  all.  A  great  multitude,  made  up 
of  every  party,  met  him  at  the  depot  and  escorted 
him,  like  a  conqueror,  to  the  Wigwam  where  Lin 
coln  had  been  nominated  the  year  before.  Ten 
thousand  people  again  filled  it,  shouting  a  unani 
mous  welcome.  He  is  now  again  in  harmony  with 
the  Folk-Soul  of  his  State  and  of  the  North- West, 


LAST  DEED  AND  DEATH  OF  DOUGLAS.     511 

from  which  he  has  been  alienated  so  many  years. 
We  have  seen  that  since  1850,  he  has  been  re 
peatedly  received  in  Chicago  with  most  emphatic 
signs  of  public  disapproval.  That  was  during  his 
breaching,  separative  period.  But  now  he  repre 
sents  the  united  People  more  completely  than 
Lincoln  as  he  steps  upon  the  platform  of  the  Wig 
wam,  taking,  as  it  were,  Lincoln's  place  in  Lin 
coln's  own  temple,  and  performing  Lincoln's  own 
task  of  voicing  the  decree  of  the  World-Spirit  to 
the  Folk-Soul.  That  must  be  deemed  the  culmi 
nation  of  Douglas. 

In  his  speech  he  summons  all  his  leonine 
strength  and  thunders:  "There  can  be  no  neutrals 
in  this  war:  only  patriots  or  traitors."  So  Douglas 
places  himself  and  all  his  followers  on  the  battle- 
line  of  the  Union.  This  is  Douglas  at  his  most 
colossal  moment;  but  the  act  is  breaking  his 
heart.  There  is  a  strain  of  bleeding  sorrow  gush 
ing  up  through  his  words  in  spite  of  his  strong 
self-suppression.  He  confesses  that  "it  is  a  sad 
task  to  discuss  questions  so  fearful  as  civil  war," 
which  he  foretells  to  be  "disastrous  and  bloody." 
This  was  his  last  speech,  May  1st,  1861.  He  took 
to  his  bed,  and  in  a  brief  time  was  dangerously 
ill.  His  dying  message  to  his  boys  at  Georgetown 
College  was:  "Tell  them  to  obey  the  laws  and 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 
His  last  breath  was  an  utterance  of  that  institu 
tional  spirit  which  we  have  always  found  under- 


512       ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

lying  his  political  conduct,  however  changeful  and 
negative.  His  death  occurred  June  3d,  at  the  age 
of  48  years,  producing  a  tragic  impression  of 
gloom  upon  the  Nation,  which  had  followed  so 
intently  the  final  act  of  his  life. 

Such  is  the  end  of  what  we  have  called  the  Lin 
coln-Douglas  sexennium,  during  which  these  two 
antitypal  characters,  both  truly  gigantic,  have  had 
their  long  desperate  contest  upon  the  arena  of 
State  and  Nation.  With  this  end  also  concludes 
the  second  great  Period  of  Lincoln's  whole  career, 
in  which  he  through  many  an  up  and  down  be 
comes  the  supreme  national  man  of  his  time, 
being  chosen  the  Nation's  Executive,  its  very 
Will  in  the  pinch  of  its  greatest  crisis.  A  drama 
we  may  deem  it  with  its  twinned  heroes  ever  cir 
cling  about  each  other  in  a  kind  of  antithetic 
unity.  The  outcome  is  that  the  antitypes  have  at 
last  come  together  in  a  common  fundamental  ele 
ment  of  character  which  both  instinctively  have 
possessed  from  the  beginning  as  their  deepest  in 
stitutional  endowment  from  their  Nation.  But 
alack-a-day!  one  of  them  dies  in  the  very  act  of 
supreme  reconciliation,  which  is  called  forth  by 
the  danger  of  that  Union  with  which  both  of  them 
were  ingrown  in  the  deepest  of  their  being.  The 
close  of  Douglas  bears  in  it  a  sublime  pathos:  his 
highest  deed  of  self-conquest  and  of  harmonious 
mediation  with  his  People  kills  him,  or  at  least 
brings  him  face  to  face  with  his  own  individual 
dissolution. 


LAST  DEED  AND  DEATH  OF  DOUGLAS.     513 

So  we  must  do  justice  to  Douglas,  whom  the 
biographers  of  Lincoln  generally  have  been  in 
clined  to  disparage  and  to  blacken,  having  ap 
parently  absorbed  somewhat  of  Lincoln's  one 
dominating  prejudice — that  against  his  life-long 
rival.  But  History  must  vindicate  the  persistent 
institutional  character  of  Douglas  from  the  first  to 
the  last  of  his  career,  even  if  he  regarded  political 
parties  as  legitimate  game  for  his  personal  ambi 
tion.  But  he  never  did  play  fast  and  loose  with 
the  Union,  to  whose  support  he  rallied  with  all 
his  strength  in  the  crisis  of  its  supreme  danger. 
And  we  have  to  repeat  that  Douglas,  especially 
after  the  great  Debate,  appreciated  Lincoln  better 
than  Lincoln  appreciated  Douglas.  Lincoln  had 
a  more  universally  magnanimous  character  than 
Douglas,  still  Douglas  was  more  magnanimous  to 
Lincoln  than  Lincoln  to  Douglas.  Lincoln  was 
more  humane  and  more  forgiving  to  all  the  world 
than  Douglas,  but  less  forgiving  to  Douglas  than 
Douglas  to  him.  And  that  common  basic  element 
of  devotion  to  the  Union,  which  lay  so  deep  in 
both — Douglas  recognized  it  more  fully  in  Lincoln 
than  Lincoln  ever  recognized  it  in  Douglas. 

Still  when  all  has  been  said,  and  both  the 
Giants,  the  little  and  the  big,  have  been  weighed 
in  the  scales  of  justice  and  have  impartially  re 
ceived  judgment,  it  will  be  acknowledged  that 
Lincoln  was  made  of  a  purer  clay  and  was  cast  in 
a  diviner  mould  than  Douglas.  He  seemed  to  be- 

33 


514        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  SECOND. 

long  to  a  different  and  higher  order  of  humanity. 
That  sympathy  with  poor  mortality  reaching  down 
to  the  humblest  even  of  a  different  race,  sponta 
neously  pulsed  upward  like  an  Artesian  well  out  of 
Lincoln's  heart,  but  hardly  out  of  Douglas's.  Not 
only  no  Slave-State  shall  be  born  hereafter  of  the 
American  Union,  but  no  slave  shall  ever  again 
open  his  eyes  on  American  soil — that  was  the 
principle  and  the  achievement  of  Lincoln,  but  not 
of  Douglas.  The  Genius  of  Civilization,  the  Spirit 
of  the  Age  took  Lincoln  as  its  bosom  confidant 
and  communicated  to  him  its  secret  decree  for  the 
future;  but  it  whispered  no  such  lofty  evangel  to 
Douglas,  who,  however,  came  at  last  to  feel  some 
thing  of  the  sort  through  Lincoln.  And  the  su 
preme  test  of  the  truly  Great  Man  of  any  time  or 
clime,  that  of  making  himself  the  mediator  be 
tween  the  World-Spirit  and  the  Folk-Soul  of  his 
Nation  in  its  pivotal  crisis,  can  be  triumphantly 
applied  to  Lincoln;  but  to  such  high  office  Doug 
las  can  lay  no  supereminent  claim  except  for  a 
time  possibly  on  that  last  journey  of  his  when  he 
bore  to  his  people  Lincoln's  message,  which  had 
also  become  deeply  his  own. 

And  yet  in  Lincoln  we  long  to  find  one  thing 
which  we  cannot:  some  brief  word  of  recognition 
for  his  rival's  great  deed  of  service  and  self-denial. 
A  little  eulogy  over  the  grave  of  Douglas  would 
have  well  befitted  Lincoln's  lips,  but  they  are 
silent.  Still  we  cannot  help  thinking  that  out  of 


LAST  DEED  AND  DEATH  OF  DOUGLAS.     515 

his  generous  heart  in  some  self-communing  moment 
burst  forth  a  repentant  confession:  "That  man  I 
did  not  fully  recognize;  even  in  the  final  act  of 
him  I  was  still  afraid  that  he  would  breach  the 
Union,  but  he  died  defending  it  to  his  uttermost. 
Gladly  would  I  confess  to  him  my  mistake,  but  it 
is  too  late;  his  last  deed  and  death  have  brought 
home  to  me  my  own  shortcoming.  Farewell, 
my  first  enlisted  man  and  the  greatest — also  the 
first  hero  to  die  for  the  Union.  Henceforth  I  must 
go  on  without  thee,  quite  alone." 


^Lincoln    wie 


We  have  now  reached  the  last  and  briefest 
Period  of  Lincoln,  yet  altogether  the  most  event 
ful  and  best  known.  Hardly  four  years  does  it 
continue,  but  it  shows  Lincoln's  practical  achieve 
ment,  his  true  realization.  He  passes  to  the  exe 
cution  of  what  he  has  hitherto  simply  uttered  and 
formulated.  So  he  is  distinctively  the  Nation's 
Executive,  moving  from  word  to  deed.  Taking 
in  the  whole  sweep  of  this  quadrennium,  we  see 
that  he  is  to  make  actual  his  utterance:  "This 
(516) 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      517 

Nation  cannot  endure  half  slave  and  half  free." 
He  indeed  voiced  the  decree  of  the  World-Spirit 
in  his  far-reaching  Prelude  of  the  Lincolniad,  as 
we  have  elsewhere  termed  it;  but  now  he  has 
been  chosen  to  be  the  doer  also,  the  executor  of 
that  same  decree.  The  Presidency  means  essenti 
ally  Will,  verily  the  Will  of  the  whole  People  in 
corporate  in  one  individual.  Strange  lot  fallen 
out  of  the  skies  upon  that  country  lawyer  from 
the  North-West,  quite  without  administrative  ex 
perience  of  any  kind !  Will,  then,  he  is  to  mani 
fest  in  a  supreme  degree,  institutional  Will  as 
distinct  from  caprice  or  obstinacy;  the  central 
Will  of  his  immediate  cabinet  he  is  to  show  him 
self  as  well  as  of  the  remotest  members  of  the 
Nation.  At  the  same  time  we  must  not  leave  out 
of  his  psychical  composition  the  realm  of  his  Feel 
ing,  that  which  is  celebrated  in  hundreds  of  anec 
dotes  under  the  names  of  Sympathy,  Heart,  Love. 
Indeed,  he  had  to  guard  against  his  emotional 
nature,  which  might  make  him  at  times  too 
lenient,  through  Secretary  Stanton,  who  was 
naturally  the  opposite  of  Lincoln  in  this  regard. 
Just  as  great  as  his  Feeling  and  his  Will  was  his 
Intellect,  embracing  what  is  often  called  sagac 
ity,  insight,  genetic  thought.  Compared  with 
Seward,  who  was  a  man  of  erudition,  of  reflec 
tion,  and  of  keen  dialectical  subtlety,  Lincoln 
must  be  deemed  the  positive  thinker  within  his 
range,  which  was  political,  being  able  to  pene- 


518         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

trate  with  his  mind  the  soul  of  the  object  under 
consideration,  to  grasp  and  utter  its  creative  es 
sence. 

If  the  three  basic  activities  of  the  Human  Spirit 
be  Feeling,  Will  and  Intellect,  we  have  to  say 
that  Lincoln  manifested  them  all  in  a  peculiarly 
high  degree  of  completeness.  What  a  contrast 
was  he  to  the  preceding  will-less  Executive! 
Buchanan  must  be  taken  as  the  final  embodiment 
of  the  old  Double  Union,  its  attempted  equilib 
rium  between  the  Free-States  and  the  Slave- 
States,  its  everlasting  balancing  and  tetering  be 
tween  the  two  sides,  which  reached  quite  the 
point  of  national  paralysis,  and  in  his  case,  of  in 
dividual  paralysis,  of  Will.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  the  Nation  could  see  a  picture  of  itself  at 
that  time  in  the  doubleness  and  vacillation  of  the 
Chief  Executive.  And  it  will  have  to  be  added 
that  the  last  decade  before  1861  of  Southern 
statesmanship  under  Northern  Presidents  had 
brought  the  Nation  to  this  stage  of  inner  dualism 
and  will-lessness — almost  to  the  point  of  letting 
the  Nation  fall  asunder  of  itself  in  peace.  Now 
it  was  at  this  point  that  Lincoln  took  hold  and 
began  to  re-unite  the  separating  parts  into  a  new 
Whole,  which  is  indeed  his  great  work.  We  have 
sought  to  trace  him  united  within  after  having 
had  his  time  of  dualism,  and  then  he  is  ready  to 
make  his  cardinal  utterance  that  the  Nation's 
dualism  must  come  to  an  end,  as  did  his  own. 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      519 

As  a  divided  Self,  he  never  could  have  unified  the 
Nation. 

Moreover  Coercion,  so  hateful  to  the  South, 
means  Will — the  Union  declares  itself  also  to  be 
a  Will,  which  is  to  be  exerted  and  enforced 
through  the  Chief  Executive.  But  the  doctrine  of 
the  Southerners,  even  of  the  most  of  the  Southern 
Unionists,  was  that  the  Union  had  no  Will  and 
had  no  right  to  assert  itself  against  its  destroyer 
Disunion.  Thus  will-less  James  Buchanan  was  its 
Presidential  ideal.  But  Lincoln  brings  Will  and  a 
united  Will  into  that  unwilled  and  disunited 
Union,  truly  a  contradiction  in  terms.  Hence  he 
affirms  in  his  Inaugural  the  doctrine  of  Coercion, 
or  of  the  Union  with  a  Will — he  has  to  do  so  or 
to  drop  back  into  a  James  Buchanan  with  a 
dual,  self-annulling  Union. 

In  the  psychology  of  Lincoln  an  interesting 
point  is  to  notice  his  use  of  the  first  personal  pro 
noun  in  many  of  his  documents,  especially  in  the 
later  ones :  '  'Must  7  shoot  a  simple-minded  soldier- 
boy  who  deserts,  while  7  must  not  touch  a  hair 
of  a  wily  agitator  who  induces  him  to  desert?" 
Really  Lincoln  here  naively  voices  the  Folk-Soul 
as  an  Ego  or  Self,  which  is  his  own.  Some  politi 
cal  opponents  have  tried  to  make  Lincoln  speak 
like  an  absolutist  after  the  pattern  of  Louis  XIV 
of  France,  when  the  latter  said  Vetat  c'est  moi. 
But  of  the  caprice  of  the  tyrant  no  ruler  was  ever 
more  free  than  Lincoln;  his  was  an  institutional 


520         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

spirit  seeking  to  govern  through  Law  and  Consti 
tution,  even  when  he  says  that  " measures  other 
wise  unconstitutional,  might  become  lawful  by 
becoming  indispensable  to  the  preservation  of  the 
Constitution  through  the  preservation  of  the 
Nation."  That  is,  he  might  have  to  violate  the 
Constitution  in  part  to  save  it  as  a  whole  (as  in 
the  Merryman  case).  He  recognized  the  Consti 
tution  as  supreme  in  its  entirety,  but  he  also 
recognized  that  a  clause  of  it  might  be  turned  in 
a  political  crisis  against  the  existence  of  the  total 
instrument.  He  never  said  or  imagined,  "I  am 
the  State"  in  the  absolutistic  sense;  he  never 
deemed  himself  to  be  the  source  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  but  rather  the  Constitution  to  be  the  source 
of  himself  as  Executive,  though  he  claimed  the 
right  to  interpret  that  Constitution  in  his  own 
sphere.  Really  his  natural  use  of  7  in  his  public 
utterances  has  its  deep  psychologic  justification  in 
the  man  and  his  work,  which  the  people  felt  and 
accepted;  his  Ego  or  Self  had  to  re-create  and  re 
establish  that  institutional  world  which  threat 
ened  to  fall  to  pieces  around  him. 

I.  The  supreme  end  of  Lincoln  during  this 
Period  is  to  preserve  the  Union.  This  is  the  one 
thing  from  which  all  his  political  conduct  flows 
and  to  which  it  returns.  Undoubtedly  other  ends 
play  in,  but  they  are  inferior  in  his  regard;  in 
fact  they  become  means  at  last  to  the  one  great 
object — Union.  From  this  point  of  view  we  must 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      521 

estimate  Lincoln's  dealing  with  the  slavery  ques 
tion  during  the  war,  the  purpose  of  which  was  not 
the  destruction  of  slavery  but  the  preservation  of 
the  Union.  And  such  was  the  only  institutional 
way  of  carrying  on  the  contest.  This  attitude, 
however,  began  to  divide  his  party  into  radicals 
and  conservatives,  the  first  making  the  Union 
subordinate  to  the  slavery  issue,  the  other  making 
the  slavery  issue  subordinate  to  the  Union.  Of 
course  there  were  many  shades  of  opinion  between 
these  two  wings. 

Moreover,  as  an  act  of  policy,  this  attitude  of 
Lincoln  was  very  effective.  It  was  the  sentiment 
of  Union  by  which  he  held  in  line  the  Border 
States  and  the  Douglas  Democracy.  A  proclaimed 
war  against  slavery  directly  would  have  divided 
the  North  and  united  the  South.  And  the  radical 
Republicans  would  have  to  follow  Lincoln  in  the 
end  anyhow,  for  they  could  not  well  follow  the 
South.  Thus  Lincoln,  by  his  policy  of  making 
the  Union  the  supreme  end,  practically  kept 
the  North  united  and  the  South  divided. 
What  Douglas  so  nobly  helped  to  put  into  his 
hand,  he  held  to  the  last.  The  radical  programme 
would  have  brought  failure,  and  have  deserved  it, 
being  really  anti-institutional. 

The  best  representative  of  the  more  radical  wing 
of  the  Republicans  was  Horace  Greeley,  who 
through  his  New  York  Tribune  could  flood  the 
country  with  his  discontent.  He  assumed  in  his 


522        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

newspaper  to  utter  "the  prayer  of  twenty  mil 
lions"  for  immediate  emancipation.  Greeley  com 
plains  that  your  "timid  counsels  in  such  a  crisis 
are  calculated  to  prove  perilous  and  probably  dis 
astrous/'  and  that  "you  are  unduly  influenced  by 
the  counsels,  the  representations,  the  menaces  of 
certain  fossil  politicians  hailing  from  the  Border 
Slave  States. "  So  Greeley  would  produce  a  di 
vided  North  and  and  a  united  South.  Important 
is  Greeley 's  declaration  "that  a  large  proportion 
of  our  regular  army  officers,  with  many  of  the 
volunteers,  evince  far  more  solicitude  to  uphold 
slavery  than  to  put  down  the  Rebellion."  Doubt 
less  this  sentence  touches  upon  a  very  serious 
trouble  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  particular, 
but  certainly  Lincoln  did  not  create  it,  though  he 
had  to  deal  with  it  as  an  existent  fact.  What 
was  that  trouble,  or  malady  perchance?  Lincoln 
himself  recognized  it,  and  tried  to  cure  it,  or  at 
least  to  control  it  in  one  way  or  the  other,  still  it 
baffled  him  quite  to  the  last. 

But  in  reference  to  his  policy,  Lincoln  takes  his 
pen  and  answers  Greeley  in  a  brief  letter  which, 
both  as  to  its  form  and  significance,  must  be 
pronounced  a  masterpiece  of  its  kind.  Let  the 
reader  note  once  more  the  use  of  the  .personal 
pronoun  7,  and  the  peculiar  effect  of  it  as  a 
matter  of  style.  Again  we  hear  the  individual 
Abraham  Lincoln  mightily  voicing  the  Folk-Soul 
as  a  whole  against  a  petty  snarling  fragment  of  it 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.       523 

represented  by  Greeley.  Here  is  the  letter,  with 
the  omission  of  a  few  sentences:  "I  would  save 
thellnion.  I  would  save  it  the  shortest  way  under 
the  Constitution.  ...  If  I  could  save  the  Union 
without  freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it;  and  if  I 
could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves  I  would  do 
it;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  some  and 
leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that.  What 
I  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do  be 
cause  I  believe  it  helps  saves  the  Union;  and  what 
I  forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it 
would  help  save  the  Union.  I  shall  do  less  when 
ever  I  believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts  the  cause, 
and  I  shall  do  more  whenever  I  believe  doing 
more  will  help  the  cause.  ...  I  have  here 
stated  my  purpose  according  to  my  view  of  offi 
cial  duty;  and  I  intend  no  modification  of  my  oft- 
expressed  personal  wish  that  all  men  everywhere 
could  be  free." 

This  letter  bears  the  date  of  August  22,  1862, 
while  the  great  resurgence  of  the  Confederate 
arms  was  rolling  Northward,  both  in  the  East  and 
West  and  pushing  the  battle-line  back  to  the  Po 
tomac  and  Ohio  rivers,  with  the  threat  of  invading 
the  Free  States  and  of  making  them  the  theater 
of  the  war.  Lincoln  had  already  written  his 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  but  was  waiting 
for  a  favorable  time  to  issue  it  to  the  public.  He 
says  in  this  letter  that  he  will  use  slavery  as  a 
means  for  preserving  the  Union.  Note  that  he 


524         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

discriminates  between  his  personal  wish  "that  all 
men  could  be  everywhere  free/'  and  his  sworn 
Constitutional  duty — the  sign  of  the  institutional 
man.  Remarkable  too  is  the  composition  of  this 
letter  with  its  geometric  order  and  precision  of 
sentences — antithetic  and  apothegmatic.  But  the 
supreme  fact  of  it  is  the  Primacy  of  the  Union, 
now  uttered  against  Northern  extremists,  and  not 
against  Southern  disunionists,  as  was  the  first  In 
augural. 

II.  We  are  now  led  to  inquire,  what  is  this 
Union  which  Lincoln  places  so  decidedly  first  in 
importance?  It  means,  of  course,  a  reunited  in 
stead  of  a  divided  nationality,  one  instead  of  two 
or  many.  It  is  evident  that  the  South  is  ready  to 
break  up  the  old  State  and  to  make  several  States 
out  of  it,  while  the  North  proposes  to  resist  such 
a  separative  tendency,  and  even  to  strengthen  the 
previous  oneness.  Thus  two  opposite  phases  of 
political  consciousness  have  arisen,  the  unitary 
and  the  divisive,  and  are  contending  for  mastery. 
This  is  the  fundamental  fact  of  the  time,  whose 
problem  is  calling  impressively  for  solution. 

The  mind  queries:  cannot  the  end  of  human 
government  be  attained  as  well  by  a  cluster  of 
independent  States  as  by  a  single  federated  State? 
The  South  says  yes,  the  North  says  no.  Who  or 
what  is  to  decide?  Both  parties  appeal  to  war,  or 
in  religious  speech,  to  the  God  of  Battles,  who  is 
conceived  by  both  to  be  over  both,  or  the  su- 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      525 

preme  arbiter  of  the  contest.  Each  is  or  claims  to 
be  a  Nation,  and  thus  each  recognizes  and  invokes 
a  common  Power  above  the  Nation  as  the  World- 
Judge  who  has  at  last  to  make  the  decision. 

At  once  our  thought  proceeds  to  grapple  this 
highest  Justiciary  who  holds  appellate  jurisdiction 
over  the  Nations,  all  of  them,  and  has  held  it 
since  the  beginning  of  History.  In  this  book  of 
ours  we  have  sought  to  keep  him  in  mind  and 
have  endowed  him  with  a  special  name,  the  World- 
Spirit,  to  whose  tribunal  all  national  events  are 
ultimately  referred  for  adjudication.  Moreover, 
he  works  through  men,  especially  through  the 
Great  Man  of  the  Age,  who  becomes  the  mouth 
piece  as  well  as  the  executor  of  these  supreme  be 
hests.  Performing  this  function  we  have  repeat 
edly  noted  Lincoln.  And  we  have  to  add,  for  the 
completion  of  the  thought,  that  this  World-Spirit 
has  an  end  in  its  judgment  of  Nations — which  end 
is  to  bring  forth  the  supreme  political  institution, 
the  universal  State,  for  making  freedom  actual. 
According  to  this  test  each  particular  Nation  is 
judged  and  takes  its  place  in  the  institutional  ev 
olution  of  History. 

And  now  the  question  arises:  Which  is  the 
higher  principle,  that  of  the  North  or  of  the  South, 
in  the  view  of  the  World-Spirit?  Which  repre 
sents  better  the  movement  toward  the  universal 
State  with  its  actualized  freedom?  The  South  is 
bringing  forth  a  division  of  the  one  Federal  Union 


526          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN—PART  THIRD. 

into  two  or  more  governments  of  the  same  kind, 
that  is,  republican;  the  one  republic  hitherto  is 
to  become  many  republics,  as  in  South  America, 
which  therein  reproduces  the  governmental  multi 
plicity  of  Europe.  Evidently,  then,  secession 
means  the  relapse  to  the  political  form  which 
dominates  European  History,  from  the  ancient 
Greek  City-State  to  the  modern  Nation-State. 
Europe  is  now  and  always  has  been  since  its  his 
toric  beginning  a  Polyarchy,  as  we  have  elsewhere 
named  it  (see  our  European  History,  p.  17,  et 
passim),  a  group  of  separate  independent  States, 
always  fighting  or  getting  ready  to  fight  one 
another.  The  Federal  Union  as  organized  by  the 
Constitution  distinctly  overcame  and  transcended 
the  separative,  mutually  colliding  stage  of  Poly- 
archie  Europe  through  its  principle  of  federation, 
which  joins  together  the  individual  States,  yet  just 
therein  preserves  and  secures  their  separate 
individuality.  The  American  Union,  from  this 
point  of  view,  is  the  new  and  higher  political  norm 
which  the  World-Spirit  has  evolved  in  unfolding 
toward  its  end .  The  well-known  American  motto 
is  E  pluribus  unum,  one  made  out  of  many,  while 
Europe  is  many  made  out  of  one,  and  this  what 
the  South  proposes  to  do  through  secession  and 
separation. 

The  Southern  principle,  therefore,  runs  counter 
to  the  ongoing  movement  of  the  World's  History; 
it  is  a  relapse  to  a  preceding  and  less  developed 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      527 

political  condition;  it  reverses  the  wheels  of 
progress  and  goes  backward  to  an  historic  stage 
which  the  Federal  Union  has  transcended  or  at 
least  has  begun  to  transcend.  Of  course  there  is 
no  intention  here  to  disparage  Europe,  which  cer 
tainly  had  a  higher  culture  than  any  part  of  the 
newly  discovered  Western  Continent.  Still  we 
affirm  that  its  political  system  was  an  earlier  form, 
and  really  less  developed  in  the  sweep  of  universal 
History,  than  the  federal  system  of  the  United 
States .  We  may  divide  the  world-historical  move 
ment  up  to  date  into  three  main  ever-advancing 
stages — Oriental,  European,  and  Occidental  or 
American;  Europe  with  its  separative  Polyarchy 
is  the  second  stage,  while  America  with  its  Union 
through  federation  is  the  third,  and  so  far  the  last . 
And  now  we  are  to  see  what  all  this  has  to  do 
with  Lincoln.  He  has  become  the  supreme  repre 
sentative  of  this  Federal  Union  in  its  most  peril 
ous  crisis,  when  it  must  take  a  step  forward  into  a 
new  and  higher  form  of  itself,  or  must  drop  back 
ward  into  some  phase  of  the  European  Polyarchy . 
It  is  Lincoln  more  than  any  other  leader  who  re 
establishes  and  transforms  the  American  Federal 
system  when  it  had  become  decadent  under  the 
later  Southern  statesmanship.  It  is  he  who  makes 
the  old  Double  Union  with  its  dualism  of  Free- 
States  and  Slave-States  into  a  single  homogeneous 
Union  as  to  freedom.  He  will  not  permit  Amer 
ica  to  be  Europeanized  politically,  though  all 


528         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD 

Americans  recognize  gratefully  their  European 
origin.  But  they  must  advance  to  the  possession 
of  their  new  historic  heritage,  which  is  not  Poly- 
archie,  but  Federative  through  a  Constitution. 
Europe  is,  indeed,  a  Polyarchy  of  monarchies 
mainly,  while  the  trend  of  the  South  was  turned 
toward  a  Polyarchy  of  republics,  two  or  more. 
The  Southerners  could  not  be  called  monarchists, 
they  were  in  their  way,  doubtless,  as  good  repub 
licans  as  the  Northerners :  but  that  was  not  the 
issue  before  the  Tribunal  of  the  World's  History. 
The  issue  was  secession,  separation,  Polyarchy, 
even  though  this  might  be  a  Polyarchy  of  repub 
lics.  We  may  well  think  that  the  World-Spirit  or 
the  presiding  Genius  over  total  History  had  laid 
the  burden  of  upholding  and  realizing  its  third 
great  stage  upon  the  Unionists,  whose  supreme 
representative  and  protagonist  was  Lincoln,  who 
must  keep  them  from  the  grand  relapse,  free  them 
from  slavery  the  separator,  and  finally  transform 
the  Union  itself. 

Lincoln  was,  therefore,  a  world-historical  char 
acter  in  the  great  sense,  and  thus  we  must  grasp 
him  at  his  highest.  Undoubtedly  he  was  national, 
intensely  so,  but  Nations,  especially  in  their 
bloom,  are  the  bearers  and  executors  of  the  World- 
Spirit.  It  is  at  this  point  that  we  may  catch  the 
full  meaning  of  Lincoln's  stress  upon  the  Union. 
This  was,  indeed,  of  great  economic  advantage  to 
the  people,  and  otherwise  brought  many  blessings 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE       529 

in  its  train;  still  the  summation  of  all  its  merits 
and  virtues  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  was  the  culmi 
nation  of  universal  History,  so  far  as  this  has  yet 
unfolded. 

It  may  be  added  that  Greeley  had  no  con 
sciousness  of  the  world-historical  place  of  the 
Union,  and  hence  he  could  not  at  all  appreciate 
the  deepest  motive  of  Lincoln,  and  indeed,  of  the 
war  itself.  The  two  men  united  in  a  common 
hostility  to  slavery,  but  Greeley  had  almost  no 
institutional  sense,  which  was  the  saving  attribute 
of  Lincoln.  Over  and  over  again  during  the  war 
the  utterances  of  Greeley,  though  not  consistent 
always,  could  only  be  called  those  of  an  anti- 
slavery  disunionist,  and  thus  showed  a  very  deep 
point  of  agreement  with  the  pro-slavery  disunion 
ist.  Now  Lincoln's  great  call  was  to  vindicate 
the  Union,  not  merely  as  national  but  also  as 
world-historical ;  so  he  had  to  meet  and  put  down 
disunionism  of  both  kinds,  anti-slavery  and  pro- 
slavery,  Northern  and  Southern,  Greeley  and  Jef 
ferson  Davis.  The  former  was  chiefly  accom 
plished  by  the  word  of  Lincoln  (witness  the  fore 
going  letter),  the  latter  by  his  deed.  At  the  same 
time  he  declared  he  would  lay  hands  on  slavery 
as  a  means  for  preserving  the  Union — which  was 
also  a  kind  of  notice  to  the  pro-slavery  Unionists 
of  the  Border  States  to  get  ready  to  take  the  step 
with  him. 

III.  The  thoughtful  reader  will  not  fail  to  ask, 

34 


530         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

How  far  was  Lincoln  conscious  of  his  place  in  the 
World's  History?  Not  once  but  many  times  he 
speaks  of  the  Civil  War  as  a  struggle  for  the  exist 
ence  of  popular  Government  universally.  If  a 
minority  can  rise  up  and  nullify  the  Will  of  the 
People  constitutionally  expressed,  that  is  the  end 
of  their  rule  forever.  And  this  loss  is  not  merely 
confined  to  America,  but  will  be  the  failure  of  "a 
great  promise  to  all  the  people  of  the  World  to  all 
time  to  come" — a  defeat  not  only  national  but  also 
world-historical.  The  same  thought  we  hear  in 
the  conclusion  of  the  Gettysburg  speech,  athat 
government  of  the  People,  by  the  People,  for  the 
People,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth."  So  Lin 
coln  always  appealed  mightily  to  the  Folk-Soul  to 
defend  its  inheritance  of  the  ages,  its  institutional 
freedom  through  the  Union  and  Constitution,  as  a 
boon  for  all  coming  time .  And  the  response  never 
failed  to  rise  at  the  call. 

Still  the  People,  the  Nation,  the  Folk-Soul,  was 
but  one  side  or  element  of  the  great  historic  proc 
ess  of  the  time.  What  was  the  other?  In  this 
connection  may  be  cited  a  passage  from  the  first 
Inaugural:  "In  our  present  differences  (between 
North  and  South)  is  either  party  without  faith  of 
being  in  the  right?  If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Na 
tions  with  His  eternal  truth  and  justice,  be  on 
your  side  of  the  North,  or  on  yours  of  the  South, 
that  truth  and  that  justice  will  surely  prevail  by 
the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  the  Ameri- 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      531 

can  People."  Here  are  first  to  be  noted  the  two 
elements:  "the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations"  on  this 
part  and  "the  American  People"  on  the  other. 
Such  is  Lincoln's  way  of  designating  those  two 
principles  or  energies  to  which  we  have  often 
called  attention  in  this  book  under  the  names  of 
World-Spirit  and  Folk-Soul.  Moreover,  there  is 
also  in  the  extract  a  hint  of  the  interaction  be 
tween  these  two  energies.  "The  Almighty  Ruler 
of  Nations"  is  the  ideal  bearer  of  "eternal  truth 
and  justice,"  which  must  be  somehow  realized  and 
made  to  prevail  through  the  "tribunal  of  the 
American  People"  in  the  present  contest  between 
the  North  and  the  South.  Or  we  may  say,  the 
Spirit  ruling  the  World's  History,  that  is,  the 
World-Spirit  with  its  universal  end  is  to  be  medi 
ated  with  the  Folk-Soul,  whose  supreme  function 
is  to  embody  and  to  execute  the  decree  of  the 
World-Spirit  at  a  given  historic  epoch. 

But  who  or  what  is  to  mediate  these  two  ener 
gies?  For  "the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations"  does 
not  in  these  days  directly  interfere  even  in  those 
affairs  about  which  he  is  seemingly  most  deeply 
concerned,  but  He  employs  some  individual  as 
instrument  or  intermediary — we  shall  call  him  a 
mediator.  Now  in  the  above  extract  Lincoln  does 
not  explicitly  speak  of  any  such  mediator,  though 
this  be  implied.  But  at  other  times  not  only  was 
such  a  mediator  mentioned  by  him,  but  he  recog 
nized  himself  to  be  performing  that  mediatorial 


532         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

function.  This  comes  out  in  a  passage  already 
cited  in  another  connection:  "I  shall  be  most 
happy  indeed  if  I  shall  be  an  humble  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty  and  of  this  his  almost 
chosen  People."  (see  preceding,  p.  6).  Here  are 
designated  the  three  elemental  constituents  which 
go  to  make  every  great  world-historical  process — not 
only  this  American  one  but  all. 

In  this  sense  we  may  conceive  Lincoln  as  a  me 
diator,  mediating  the  World-Spirit  and  the  Folk- 
Soul.  He  first  represents  the  universal  scope  and 
sweep  of  History  marching  through  a  vast  and 
variegated  hurly-burly  of  events  toward  its  goal, 
which  may  be  ideally  conceived  as  the  Federation 
of  Mankind.  This  World-Spirit  is  what  the  Great 
Man  of  the  given  time  must  commune  with  and 
realize  in  his  own  particular  Nation,  which  he  has 
also  to  understand,  knowing  what  it  will  do  and 
what  it  will  not  do.  For  the  Nation  also  shares 
instinctively  in  the  movement  of  Age,  and  must 
be  ready  to  hear  the  word  and  to  do  the  com 
mand  of  the  mediator,  who  is  indeed  voicing 
"the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations." 

Lincoln,  therefore,  belongs  not  alone  to  his  par 
ticular  Nation,  but  to  all,  to  the  World's  History  at 
one  of  its  epochal  conjunctures.  Moreover,  he  was 
quite  conscious  of  his  world-historical  vocation  and 
repeatedly  expressed  it  after  his  manner.  In  the 
main  this  manner  of  expression  took  a  religious 
form  with  him,  rather  than  a  scientific  or  philo- 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      533 

sophic.  How  does  "the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Na 
tions"  deal  with  his  " chosen  People"  in  the  grand 
emergency?  As  this  is  largely  the  theme  of  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  Lincoln  seems  to  have  consulted 
it  more  than  ever  before,  perhaps  more  than  any 
other  book,  during  his  occupancy  of  the  White 
House.  Some  have  supposed  that  he  underwent 
a  peculiar  religious  conversion,  and  several  denom 
inations  have  claimed  him  as  a  proselyte.  It  may 
be  fairly  said  that  he  did  become  more  religious 
and  biblical,  but  he  belonged  to  no  church.  Ap 
parently  he  was  averse  to  dogmatic  religion;  still 
what  may  be  called  the  God-consciousness  was  a 
deeply  active  principle  in  him  always,  and  seem 
ingly  increased  in  influence  to  the  end. 

In  fact  the  second  Inaugural  gives  a  very  de 
cided  religious  view  of  the  great  conflict  drawing 
to  a  close;  style  and  conception  are  scriptural,  and 
citations  are  taken  directly  from  the  Scriptures. 
Suggestive  is  the  contrast  with  the  first  Inaugural 
which  is  legal  and  argumentative,  rather  secular 
throughout,  even  if  it  recognizes  passingly  "the 
Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,"  who,  however,  be 
comes  the  all-dominating  thought  after  a  four 
years'  baptism  of  fire.  Jefferson  Davis  was  form 
ally  a  more  religious  man  than  Lincoln;  he  was 
at  church  engaged  in  .prayer  for  success  when  he 
received  news  that  he  must  quit  Richmond  with 
all  speed.  Both  sides  appealed  to  the  same  ulti 
mate  authority;  as  Lincoln  says,  "both  read  the 


534         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

same  Bible  and  pray  to  the  same  God,  and  each 
invokes  His  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem 
strange  that  any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just 
God's  assistance  in  wringing  their  bread  from  the 
sweat  of  other  men's  faces" — at  this  point  Lincoln 
stops  himself,  he  will  not  judge  though  he  has  cer 
tainly  implied  judgment — really  the  judgment  of 
both  sides  which  have  received  the  terrible  penalty 
of  their  common  guilt  through  the  scourge  of  War. 
The  original  guilty  deed,  the  primal  "offense" 
against  a  just  God  Lincoln  now  believes  to  be  the 
institution  of  slavery,  and  doubtless  also  the 
Double  Union,  which  is  clearly  doomed.  Thus 
Lincoln  winds  up  the  list  of  his  weighty  utterances 
(he  was  assassinated  a  few  days  after  the  second 
Inaugural)  with  a  theodicy  or  a  justification  of 
God  in  the  Civil  War,  still  addressed  to  the  Folk- 
Soul  in  its  own  religious  dialect,  which  is  derived 
from  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  since  "both  sides 
read  the  same  Bible,"  and  are  inoculated  with  its 
language  and  its  conceptions. 

IV.  The  Federal  Union,  therefore,  has  a  world- 
historical  function,  which,  however,  it  cannot  ful 
fil  without  being  deeply  transformed.  The  old 
Double  Union  of  Slave-States  and  Free-States  had 
its  career  which  made  a  Nation,  but  it  could  not 
elevate  this  Nation  to  its  true  place  in  the  World's 
History.  Its  tendency  was  to  become  more  and 
more  divided,  and  slavery  was  the  divider.  From 
this  point  of  view  we  observe  three  main  divi- 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      535 

sions:  (1)  Free  and  Slave  Persons;  (2)  Free  and 
Slave  States;  (3)  a  Free  and  Slave  Union,  which 
produced  also  both  kinds  of  States,  and  conse 
quently  both  kinds  of  Persons.  Hence,  it  was  a 
Union  which  had  division  within  itself  from  the 
start.  Its  separative  character  can  be  seen  in  its 
three  great  compromises,  all  of  which  were  new 
props  to  keep  it  from  going  apart  on  the  cleaving 
line  of  slavery.  The  culmination  was  secession, 
in  which  the  rift  became  complete,  and  the  Union 
dualized  itself  or  was  tending  that  way,  when  the 
counter-movement  began  which  centered  in  Lin 
coln  as  the  Nation's  Executive. 

The  grand  turn  from  Disunion  to  the  new  Union 
was  the  Civil  War,  which  wiped  out  the  three 
foregoing  differences  between  freedom  and  slavery 
as  to  Persons,  States,  and  the  total  Union.  A 
marvelous  metamorphosis  took  place;  can  we  find 
the  pattern  after  which  it  was  modeled,  or,  per 
chance,  the  germ  out  of  which  it  unfolded?  Mark 
the  sweep  of  this  transformation:  it  changes  all 
slaves  into  freemen,  all  Slave-States  into  Free- 
States,  and  the  Double  Union  into  a  Single  one, 
which  is  Free-State  producing  only.  Such  is  the 
undoing  of  separation,  of  secession,  of  the  tendency 
to  European  Polyarchy.  Still  we  inquire  for  the 
germinal  starting-point. 

If  we  look  into  the  character  of  the  Union-born 
Free-States  of  the  North- West,  we  find  all  three 
of  the  foregoing  attributes  belonging  to  them  and 


536          ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

to  them  alone  of  the  Nation;  they  held  no  slaves, 
they  were  Free-States,  but  especially  in  their  case 
the  Union  was  Free-State  producing.  And  all 
this  they  were  before  the  Civil  War.  And  it  must 
be  observed  that  Lincoln  came  from  the  North- 
West  and  was  endowed  with  its  political  con 
sciousness,  which  through  him  largely  was  to  be 
transferred  to  the  whole  Nation.  It  is  legitimate, 
therefore,  to  declare  that  the  Union-produced 
Free-State  of  the  North- West  furnished  the  origi 
nal  and  originating  norm,  according  to  which  the 
transformation  of  the  entire  Union  was  to  take 
place. 

Let  us  illustrate  this  matter  more  fully.  In  the 
Nation  as  a  whole  there  are  two  important  lines  of 
division:  the  North  to  South  line  separates  the 
old,  primitive,  colonial  States  which  produced  the 
Union,  from  the  new,  derived,  Union-born  States 
lying  chiefly  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  On  the 
other  hand  the  East  to  West  line  separates  the 
Free-States  from  the  Slave-States,  both  new  and 
old.  The  result  is,  we  have  four  different  groups 
of  States,  or  quarterings  of  the  entire  country, 
which  we  may  specially  designate  (see  our  Ameri 
can  Ten  Years'  War,  p.  438),  in  the  following 
scheme: 

1.  East-Northern  Group — Free  States,  belonging 
to  the  Old  Thirteen,  producers  of  the  Double 
Union,  and  sharing  in  its  double  State-production. 
This  Group  must  be  transformed  by  the  new  Union, 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      537 

becoming  thus  Union-born  and  freed  of  its  double' 
State-production. 

2.  East-Southern  Group — Slave-States,  belonging 
to  the  Old  Thirteen,  producers  of  the  Double 
Union,  and  sharing  in  its  double  State-production. 
This  Group  must  be  transformed  by  the  new 
Union,  becoming  Free-States,  and  Union-born,  and 
also  productive  of  Free-States. 

It  will  be  recognized  that  both  the  foregoing 
Groups  belong  to  the  old,  Europe-born,  colonial 
Thirteen,  which  formed  the  Constitution  and  the 
first  Union,  and  made  the  latter  double,  both 
slave  and  free,  which  doubleness  was  indeed  their 
own.  Now  U  is  this  doubleness  as  well  as  the 
double  productivity  of  the  earlier  Union  which 
the  new  Order  has  to  eliminate,  both  in  the  South 
and  North.  Notable  is  the  fact  that  the  old  free 
East- Northern  Group  must  also  undergo  a  new 
birth  and  be  regenerated  in  their  Unionism.  These 
States  indeed  helped  make  the  original  Union,  and 
hence  they  had  a  tendency  to  look  upon  it  as 
something  which  they  could  unmake  at  will,  as  a 
kind  of  contract  or  revocable  compact,  though 
Daniel  Webster  tried  with  all  his  might  to  argue 
down  this  view.  But  their  real  reconstruction  can 
only  come  by  a  new  birth  through  and  into  a 
new  Union,  which  is  no  longer  double  as  they 
first  made  it.  So  the  East-Northern  States, 
though  the  originals,  must  be  originated  again, 
and,  though  free,  must  be  emancipated  again,  all 


538         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

of  them  undergoing  a  kind  of  palingenesis  as  to 
the  Union.  Lincoln  stands  as  the  representative 
of  this  work  of  unionizing  afresh  even  the  makers 
of  the  Union,  the  Old  Thirteen,  Northern  as  well 
as  Southern. 

We  are,  therefore,  to  see  that  the  conscious 
ness  of  Union  in  the  East-Northern  Group  is  dif 
ferent  from  that  of  the  West-Northern  Group, 
though  both  Groups  are  composed  of  Free-States 
and  are  anti-slavery.  They,  as  State-individuals, 
had  made  the  Union  as  a  kind  of  agreement  or 
compact  between  such  individuals,  and  hence 
why  could  these  not  unmake  the  same  if  they 
chose?  It  is  pretty  generally  agreed  that  Dis 
union  was  first  born  and  uttered  in  New  England; 
the  first  disunionist  has  been  pointed  out  in  a 
Massachusetts  representative.  And  the  Hartford 
Convention,  in  spite  all  elaborate  explanations, 
has  never  yet  been  fully  explained  away.  The 
old  foreign-born  Thirteen  are  to  be  re-born,  the 
whole  of  them,  both  Northern  and  Southern, 
through  and  into  a  new  Union,  and  thus  become 
Union-born,  which  fact  produces  for  the  first  time 
a  true  homogeneous  Union. 

3.  West-Northern  Group — Free-States,  but  origi 
nally  born  of  the  Union  which  in  their  case  is, 
accordingly,  Free-State  producing.  This  fact  is 
what  makes  them  unique  among  the  four  Groups. 
Mother  Union  has  brought  them  forth  as  free 
commonwealths,  and  them  alone;  such  is  their 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      539 

original  birthright  of  freedom,  which  they  will  in 
time  impart  to  all  the  other  three  Groups,  fur 
nishing  the  prototype  after  which  they  are  all  to 
be  transformed.  We  have  already  heard  Lincoln, 
the  West-Northern  voice  and  representative,  de 
clare  that  the  Double  Union,  formed  by  the  old 
Thirteen,  must  come  to  an  end.  Also  we  have 
seen  him  start  by  trying  to  exclude  slavery  from 
the  Territories,  that  is,  by  trying  to  take  away  the 
double  productivity  of  the  old  Double  Union.  His 
election  meant  that  the  South  should  be  practically 
deprived  of  its  genetic  power,  of  its  State-produc 
ing  power;  this  probably  more  than  anything 
else  drove  it  into  rebellion,  which,  however,  had 
the  result  of  destroying  slavery  in  the  States  where 
it  already  existed,  that  is,  of  making  the  Union 
Free-State  producing  universally.  Thus  the  West- 
Northern  political  norm  nationalizes  itself  com 
pletely,  we  may  say,  universalizes  itself  within  its 
sphere. 

4.  West-Southern  Group — Slave-States,  also  born 
of  the  Union,  which  in  their  case  is,  accordingly, 
Slave-State  producing.  This  Group  divides  within 
itself  during  the  Civil  War;  the  upper  tier  (Ken 
tucky  and  Missouri)  remained  faithful  to  the 
Union  of  which  they  were  born,  while  the  two 
lower  tiers,  constituting  seven  States,  seceded,  but 
were  gradually  overcome  by  the  Northern  army. 

Such  were  the  four  Groups  of  States,  two  free 
and  two  slave,  each  of  them  having  a  different 


540         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

relation  to  the  old  Union.  But  the  time  has  ar 
rived  when  they  all  must  be  made  over  into  Free- 
States,  and  the  Union  must  also  be  transformed 
in  accord  with  the  West-Northern  norm  of  its 
own  State  creation.  As  the  Union  produced  the 
North- West  free,  so  the  North-West  must  go  back 
and  reproduce  the  Union  free.  This  is  the  grand 
national  turn,  yea  world-historical  we  may  call  it, 
of  which  Lincoln  was  the  pivot,  the  Great  Man  of 
the  Age,  who  first  voiced  the  new  decree  of  the 
World-Spirit  to  the  Folk-Soul  and  then  took  the 
chief  hand  in  carrying  it  into  execution,  as  the 
Nation's  Executive. 

V.  And  now  must  be  recorded  another  historic 
fact  about  this  West-Northern  Group :  its  soldiers 
won  the  great  positive  victories  for  the  Union  dur 
ing  the  Civil  War.  The  West-Northern  army  took 
the  offensive  at  the  start,  and  largely  kept  it  to 
the  end,  till  it  practically  overran  and  held  ten  of 
the  eleven  seceded  States.  It  swept  down  the 
Mississippi  to  Vicksburg,  then  whirled  eastward  to 
Chattanooga,  to  Savannah,  then  turned  northward 
toward  Virginia.  At  last  it  surrounded  Lee  at 
Richmond,  not  directly  with  entrenchments,  as 
these  were  held  by  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  but 
with  an  effective  cordon  which  cut  off  all  further 
supplies  of  men,  munitions,  and  even  provisions, 
from  the  Confederate  Capital.  The  West-North 
ern  Army  was,  therefore,  mightily  present  at  Ap- 
pomattox,  though  not  in  body.  It  fact  it  was  not 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      541 

permitted  to  leave  North  Carolina  where  it  was 
compelled  to  stay  practically  unoccupied  before 
the  far  inferior  force  of  General  J.  E.  Johnston. 
Upon  this  pivotal  point  the  most  important  man 
engaged  in  the  transaction,  Grant  himself,  has 
borne  witness.  He  is  about  to  tell  what  he 
strongly  urged  upon  the  President  in  a  personal 
interview  at  Petersburg,  the  next  day  after  its 
capture  (Grant's  Memoirs,  II,  p.  459). 

"Mr.  Lincoln  knew  that  it  had  been  arranged 
for  Sherman  to  join  me  at  a  fixed  time  to  co-op 
erate  in  the  destruction  of  Lee's  army.7'  This  had 
been  the  President's  plan  and  order,  which  Grant 
secretly  changed.  But  when  the  first  success  had 
been  attained  and  Petersburg  was  taken,  "I  no 
longer  had  any  object  in  concealing  from  the  Pres 
ident  all  my  movements  and  the  objects  I  had  in 
view.  ...  I  told  him  that  I  had  been  very 
anxious  to  have  the  eastern  armies  vanquish  their 
old  enemy  who  had  so  long  resisted  all  their  re 
peated  and  gallant  attempts  to  subdue'  them  or 
drive  them  from  the  Capital."  Here  Grant  ac 
knowledges  the  failure  of  the  East-Northern  army 
in  all  its  offensive  campaigns,  his  own  included, 
perhaps  unconsciously.  He  goes  on:  "The  West 
ern  armies  had  been  in  the  main  successful  until 
they  had  conquered  all  the  territory  from  the 
Mississippi  River  to  the  State  of  North  Carolina 
and  were  now  almost  ready  to  knock  at  the  back 
door  of  Richmond,  asking  admittance .  I  said  to 


542        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

him  that  if  the  Western  armies  should  even  be  upon 
the  field,  operating  against  Richmond  and  Lee, 
the  credit  would  be  given  them  for  the  capture 
by  politicians  and  non-combatants  from  the  sec 
tion  of  country  which  those  troops  hailed  from." 
We  have  to  imagine  Lincoln's  suppressed  humor 
at  the  statement  having  a  little  secret  tilt  all  to 
itself:  Rather  hard  on  me,  General,  who  am  a 
compound  of  all  three  of  these  rather  reprehensible 
objects — a  politician,  a  Westerner,  and  a  non- 
combatant.  But  Grant  continues  quite  oblivious 
of  Lincoln'  s  quizzical  smile:  "It  might  lead  to 
disagreeable  bickerings  between  members  of  Con 
gress  of  the  East  and  those  of  the  West  in  some  of 
their  debates .  Western  members  might  be  throw 
ing  it  up  to  members  of  the  East  that  in  the  sup 
pression  of  the  rebellion  they  were  not  able  to  cap 
ture  an  army.  .  .  but  had  to  wait  until  the 
Western  armies  had  conquered  all  the  territory 
south  and  west  of  them,  and  then  come  on  and 
help  them  capture  the  only  army  they  had  been 
engaged  with."  One  might  query  whether  those 
intrusive  Westerners  were  not  already  "knocking 
at  the  back  door  of  Richmond,"  with  Sherman  in 
North  Carolina,  with  Thomas  at  Knoxville,  and 
with  Stoneman  making  for  Lynchburg .  At  any 
rate  "the  Western  armies  should  not  be  permitted 
to  be  even  upon  the  field."  Still  Grant  was  right, 
he  expressed  the  sensitiveness  of  the  East-Northern 
army  under  his  command,  a  feeling  of  deep  dissat- 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      543 

isfaction  with  itself  which  it  was  well  to  remove  as 
far  as  possible  before  the  end  of  the  war.  Such 
was  Grant's  spoken  motive,  but  he  had  another 
unspoken  one,  at  least  not  mentioned  in  his  ac 
count. 

Very  little  does  Grant  say  about  Lincoln  in 
this  matter,  simply  reporting  him  to  declare  that 
he  "had  never  thought  of  it  before/'  and  that 
"he  did  not  care  where  the  aid  came  from,  so 
the  work  was  done."  He  assented  to  Grant's 
change  of  programme,  which  was  to  keep  at  a 
distance  "the  Western  armies,"  for  these  were  cer 
tain  to  get  the  whole  credit  of  capturing  Lee  if 
they  were  even  on  the  field.  Here  the  student 
of  Lincoln  has  again  to  supply  what  that  infin 
itely  humorous  and  kindly  spirit  was  thinking 
about.  For  Lincoln  must  have  at  once  penetrated 
the  unspoken  motive  of  Grant,  since  it  lay  not 
far  from  the  surface,  and,  when  he  was  again 
alone,  he  could  not  help  having  a  little  voiceless 
colloquy  with  himself:  Yes,  my  dear  General,  I 
hope  you  will  at  the  very  last  tug  be  able  to  lead 
that  courageous  and  devoted  East-Northern  army 
to  one  positive  victory,  different  from  its  two  de 
fensive  victories,  Antietam  and  Gettysburg.  I 
have  been  trying  to  get  that  out  of  it  for  four 
years,  hitherto  without  success,  whatever  be  the 
cause.  And  you,  personally,  General,  I  hope  you 
will  redeem  yourself  from  the  record  of  the  bat 
tles  of  the  Wilderness,  Cold  Harbor,  the  mine  of 


544        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

Petersburg,  and  add  a  new  surrender  to  those  of 
Fort  Donelson  and  Vicksburg,  completing  the 
triple  crown  of  your  triumphs. 

The  reader  still  to-day  cannot  help  supplying 
this  unspoken  motive  to  Grant's  narrative,  and 
certainly  Lincoln  must  have  thought  of  it,  since 
it  pertained  to  a  matter  which  had  given  him 
the  greatest  anxiety  during  the  recent  months. 
Will  Grant  also  fail  with  that  East-Northern 
army?  Grant's  military  career,  in  fact  his  whole 
life,  consists  of  a  succession  of  mighty  ups  and 
downs,  of  colossal  ascents  and  descents,  having  a 
tendency  to  describe  a  series  of  huge  parabolas, 
winding  up  in  that  last  rapid  rise  to  Appomattox. 

VI.  Grant  adds,  after  giving  the  cited  account  a 
little  comment  of  his  own:  "I  never  expected  any 
such  bickering  as  I  have  indicated,  between  the  sol 
diers  of  the  two  sections,"  but  only  between  politic 
ians  and  non-combatants  (Memoirs,  11,461,  written 
probably  about  twenty  years  after  the  War).  Yet 
the  returned  "soldiers of  the  two  sections/ 'or  rather 
of  the  two  armies,  have  certainly  not  failed  to  en 
gage  in  "bickerings"  or  animated  discussions, 
which  have  sometimes  reached  the  point  of  caus 
ing  a  loss  of  temper  in  one  or  both  of  the  disput 
ants.  In  fact  to-day  the  Western  soldier,  full  of 
the  history  of  the  conflict  and  its  problems,  can 
hardly  meet  an  Eastern  veteran  and  get  to  know 
him  fairly  well  without  asking  him:  "Tell  me, 
comrade,  what  in  your  opinion  was  the  matter 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      545 

with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac?  It  is  the 
greatest  mystery  of  the  War  to  my  mind;  I  have 
been  putting  that  question  or  a  similar  one  to  its 
veterans  for  more  than  forty  years,  and  have  re 
ceived  a  hundred  different  ansv/ers,  besides  those 
contained  in  books,  and  I  am  still  puzzled.  For 
instance  I  cannot  make  up  my  mind  whether 
McClellan  hypnotized  the  Army  or  the  Army 
hypnotized  McClellan,  who  was  a  bold,  aggressive 
soldier,  always  ready  to  seize  the  initiative,  up 
to  the  time  when  he  took  command  of  it.  And 
the  confession  will  have  to  be  made  that  Grant 
went  with  it  into  his  deepest  eclipse,  even  if  he 
emerged  again.  The  soldiers  of  that  Army  were 
certainly  as  brave,  as  devoted  as  those  of  the 
West,  and  were  better  disciplined;  and  in  the 
ability  to  get  on  their  legs  again  for  a  fresh  fight 
after  defeat  upon  defeat  they  stand  unparalleled 
in  history,  I  believe.  But  so  much  the  more  unac 
countable  becomes  their  career;  the  psychology  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  remains  to  me  the  mys 
tery  of  the  War." 

In  answer  to  the  veteran  dozens  of  reasons 
might  be  and  have  been  given,  such  as  incompe- 
tency  of  the  commanding  generals,  incompetency 
of  the  authorities"  at  Washington,  bad  strategy, 
undue  political  interference,  and  so  on  through  the 
whole  gamut  of  blame.  Some  and  perhaps  most 
of  these  censures  have  their  justice;  still  the  prob 
lem  seems  unsolved  and  insoluble.  But  the  interest 

35 


546        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

for  us  now  is  that  Lincoln  had  the  burden  of  this 
problem  weighing  him  down  for  quite  four  years, 
almost  without  relief  till  the  very  last  days  of 
his  life.  Whatever  may  have  been  to  his  mind 
the  source  of  the  trouble,  he  kept  silent  about  it. 
Still,  as  he  was  a  deep  thinker,  he  could  not  help 
having  his  view,  which  must  at  times  have  indi 
rectly  escaped  him  in  spite  of  his  secrecy.  So  we 
scrutinize  his  words  and  acts  to  see  if  we  cannot 
find  a  possible  indication  of  his  opinion. 

In  this  connection  we  may  cite  some  documents 
which  stop  the  reader  rather  startlingly,  and 
throw  him  into  a  long  and  deep  meditation,  when 
he  comes  upon  them  in  the  Works  of  Lincoln 
(Nicolay  &  Hay,  II,  p.  241).  Lincoln  had  been 
informed  that  an  officer  of  the  Army  of  the  Po 
tomac,  Major  John  J.  Key,  had  been  asked  "Why 
was  not  the  rebel  army  bagged  immediately  after 
the  battle  near  Sharpsburg?"  Whereupon  Major 
Key  made  the  following  reply:  "That  is  not  the 
game.  The  object  is  that  neither  army  shall  get 
much  the  advantage  of  the  other,  that  both 
shall  be  kept  in  the  field  till  they  are  exhausted, 
when  we  will  make  a  compromise  and  save 
slavery. "  The  President  summoned  the  officer 
into  his  immediate  presence,  the  statement  was 
proved  and  indeed  not  denied  by  the  officer,  when 
Lincoln  endorsed  upon  it  the  following  thunder 
bolt:  "In  my  view  it  is  wholly  inadmissible  for  any 
gentleman  holding  a  military  commission  from  the 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      547 

United  States  to  utter  such  sentiments  as  Major 
Key  is  within  proved  to  have  done.  Therefore 
let  Major  John  J.  Key  be  forthwith  dismissed  from 
the  military  service  of  the  United  States."  This 
seems,  on  the  face  of  it,  the  harshest  if  not  the 
most  arbitrary  act  recorded  of  Lincoln.  That  he 
should  treat  with  such  severity  a  few  careless 
words  dropped  at  random  in  private  conversation 
and  reported  to  him,  is  so  contrary  to  his  ordi 
nary  kindly  nature  that  he  must  have  felt  some 
deep  provocation,  as  well  as  some  strong  neces 
sity  of  making  an  example.  Of  course  the  dis 
missed  officer  sought  to  have  the  stigma  removed 
by  being  restored  to  his  rank.  His  request  calls 
from  Lincoln  the  following  statement: 

"I  had  been  brought  to  fear  that  there  was  a 
class  of  officers  in  the  army,  not  very  incon 
siderable  in  numbers,  who  were  playing  a  game 
to  not  beat  the  enemy  when  they  could,  on  some 
peculiar  notion  of  saving  the  Union;  and  when 
you  were  proved  to  me  in  your  own  presence 
to  have  avowed  yourself  in  favor  of  the  game,  and 
did  not  attempt  to  controvert  the  proof,  I  dis 
missed  you  as  an  example  and  a  warning  to 
that  supposed  class." 

The  date  of  Major  Key's  dismissal  is  September 
27th,  1862,  some  ten  days  after  the  battle  of  An- 
tietam,  when  McClellan  with  not  far  from  30,000 
fresh  troops  had  refused  to  pursue  Lee,  but  had 
let  him  escape  with  his  booty  across  the  Potomac. 


548         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

What  was  the  matter?  A  profound  distrust  seized 
the  country,  which  felt  the  "game"  alluded  to 
above.  Greeley  already  had  referred  to  it  in  his 
letter  previously  cited .  But  chiefly  upon  Lincoln 
crept  a  gnawing,  never-ceasing  anxiety  in  regard 
to  the  defenders  of  the  seat  of  Government. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  a  deep-seated  malady  had 
entered  that  organism  known  as  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac.  Lincoln's  diagnosis  of  it  is  at  least 
suggested  in  his  reason  for  the  dismissal  of  Major 
Key.  Also  in  the  same  case  he  administered  a 
little  dose  of  medicine  for  the  cure  of  the  disease. 
Finally  he  had  to  strike  at  what  he  and  many 
others  deemed  the  head  of  the  trouble;  he  re 
moved  McClellan  from  command,  to  whom,  how 
ever,  the  army  remained  devoted,  and  who  was 
and  continued  to  be  its  ideal  chief.  After  him  it 
evolved  no  general  equal  to  him;  in  fact  its 
commanders  seem  to  have  been  patterned  after 
him,  lesser  McGlellans.  Finally  Lincoln  in  despair 
placed  over  it  a  leader  who  had  been  developed  in 
the  West.  But  did  even  Grant  transform  the 
inner  character  of  that  army?  Rather  were  there 
not  signs  of  its  transforming  him? 

McClellan  says  in  his  book  that,  on  hearing  of 
his  removal,  "many  were  in  favor  of  my  refusing 
to  obey  the  order  and  of  marching  on  Washington 
to  take  possession  of  the  Government ."  These  were 
undoubtedly  the  people  to  whom  Lincoln  alludes 
as  "a  class  of  officers  in  the  army,  not  very  incon- 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      549 

siderable  in  numbers,  who  were  playing  a  game" 
like  that  mentioned  by  Major  Key.  Of  course 
this  meant  the  subordination  of  the  civil  to  the 
military  branch  of  Government.  Such  a  con 
sciousness  was  deeply  implanted  in  McClellan,  as 
we  see  both  by  his  words  and  actions,  and  he  or 
ganized  it  into  his  army,  which  of  course  must 
have  been  capable  of  taking  such  an  impress.  The 
next  year  at  Gettysburg  a  rumor  ran  through  the 
embattled  ranks  that  McGlellan  had  been  recalled 
and  was  in  command;  many  a  survivor  of  that 
bloody  conflict  will  tell  how  the  soldiers  felt  their 
ardor  renewed  at  the  thought  of  fighting  under 
their  old  commander. 

It  is  evident  that  McClellan  and  his  East-North 
ern  Army  were  contending  for  the  old  Double 
Union,  which  had  to  be  restored,  in  their  view,  with 
slavery.  And  therein  they  were  not  unlike  the 
States  whence  they  came,  the  free  Common 
wealths  of  the  original  Thirteen  which  had  helped 
to  make  the  old  Union  double,  both  slave  and 
free.  The  new  Union  as  Free-State  producing, 
was  not  theirs  or  their  political  consciousness, 
even  if  they  may  have  voted  for  Lincoln.  Cer 
tainly  they  had  no  principle  or  power  in  them  for 
conquering  the  South.  If  Lee,  moving  northward, 
passed  a  certain  line  of  division,  he  was  beaten 
back;  if  the  East-Northern  Army,  moving  south 
ward,  passed  what  was  practically  that  same  line 
of  division,  it  was  defeated.  The  bloody  seesaw 


550         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

continued  four  years  upon  the  same  small  piece  of 
territory  between  Washington  and  Richmond; 
neither  side  could  conquer  the  other,  though  each 
could  and  did  repel  the  other  defensively.  The 
line  of  separation  became  fixed  between  the  two 
armies;  the  logic  of  the  situation  could  only  be 
that  the  Union  was  dissolved,  as  tar  as  they  were 
concerned.  And  as  that  was  the  object  of  the 
secessionists,  the  victory  belonged  to  the  South. 

History  demands  that  these  things  be  said  now, 
in  spite  of  a  certain  sensitiveness  not  yet  out 
grown,  if  we  wish  to  grasp  the  real  sweep  and 
meaning  of  our  Civil  War,  doubtless  the  most  im 
portant  event  of  the  century  from  the  world- 
historical  viewpoint.  To  the  Old  North  and  to 
the  Old  South  the  Union  was  something  which 
they  had  made  and  could  again  unmake,  was  an 
agreement  from  which  either  could  withdraw  at 
will;  their  two  armies  after  much  fighting  had 
practically  proved  the  same  proposition,  and  had 
drawn  in  blood  over  and  over  again  the  line  of 
separation.  But  how  about  the  new  States  of 
the  West?  The  Union  in  their  case  was  something 
which  they  had  not  made  but  which  had  made 
them,  and  so  could  not  be  their  compact,  even  if 
it  were  a  compact  to  the  East.  To  them  the 
Union  was  politically  genetic,  was  State-producing, 
and  not  the  product  of  States;  hence  in  the  West 
the  Union  took  a  different,  yea,  opposite  character 
to  what  it  had  in  the  East.  Moreover,  the  West 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      551 

showed  its  productive  power  in  the  matter  of 
leadership,  both  political  and  military.  Leaving 
out  Lincoln  as  the  exception  of  all  exceptions, 
there  would  seem  to  be  something  significant  in 
the  fact  that  the  four  greatest  generals  of  the 
Northern  cause  were  developed  in  and  by  the 
Western  Army  —  Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan, 
Thomas.  Small  power  of  evolving  great  captains 
was  shown  by  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  though 
many  trials  were  made,  resulting  in  grand  disas 
ters.  The  really  creative  principle  of  the  whole 
war,  that  the  Union  must  be  productive  of  the 
Free-States,  and  hence  productive  of  all  instru 
mentalities  for  making  them  free — armies,  gen 
erals,  statesmen — seems-  decidedly  to  have  had  its 
chief  source  of  energy  in  the  North- West. 

We  hold,  therefore,  that  the  difference  between 
the  old  and  the  new  Free-States,  between  the  East 
and  the  West,  was  reflected  in  their  respective 
armies,  both  as  to  character  and  career.  The 
Western  troops,  like  their  States,  were  'Free-State 
producing  by  their  very  origin;  they,  and  they 
alone,  as  events  showed,  could  make,  or  rather  re 
make,  the  Union  like  themselves.  So  it  comes 
that  they  did  practically  the  offensive  fighting  of 
the  War;  their  function  was  to  regenerate  the 
whole  Nation,  according  to  their  origin  or  their 
creative  type,  after  first  seizing  the  hostile  portions 
of  it  by  military  power.  In  this  deed,  not  only 
national  but  world-historical,  Lincoln  was  their 


552         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

leader  and  supreme  representative.  The  Union 
had  made  their  States  free,  and  now  they  were  to  re 
quite  the  act  and  make  the  Union  free.  At  this 
pivotal  turn,  truly  a  node  of  the  World's  History, 
stands  the  colossal  historic  figure  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln. 

VII.  The  political  tendency  of  McClellan  and 
of  his  army  had  brought  early  and  constantly 
before  Lincoln's  mind  the  great  danger  of  War  to 
the  Republic.  The  successful  General  in  the  very 
nature  of  his  vocation  could  not  help  having 
a  bent  toward  overriding  the  civil  power.  Fre 
mont  and  Hunter,  military  commanders,  had 
dared  usurp  a  function  which  could  only  belong 
to  the  highest  political  authority,  to  the  Presi 
dency  itself,  in  issuing  Emancipation  Proclama 
tions. 

Lincoln  did  not  pretend  to  be  deeply  read  in 
European  History,  but  he  did  know  that  its 
greatest  military  heroes,  Caesar,  Cromwell,  Na 
poleon,  had  overthrown  the  civil  institutions  of 
their  respective  countries.  The  soldiery  follow 
ing  its  idolized  leader  had  always  shown  itself 
ready  to  install  him  as  ruler  in  disregard  of  the 
Law.  McClellan  rather  boasts  that  there  was 
such  a  spirit  in  his  army,  though  he  could  hardly 
be  called  a  great  victorious  General.  The  or 
ganization  and  discipline  of  the  American  army 
were  derived  from  Europe,  which,  with  one  or 
two  exceptions,  is  or  was  a  cluster  of  military 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      553 

monarchies.  The  professional  soldier  must  get  to 
be  an  absolutist  both  in  commanding  and  obey 
ing.  Still  the  necessity  of  a  vast  military  es 
tablishment  was  upon  the  American  Nation,  and 
could  not  be  avoided.  While  employing  it,  can 
we  escape  at  the  same  time  its  supreme  menace 
to  our  free  political  government?  There  is  no 
doubt  that  Lincoln  kept  this  problem  vividly  be 
fore  himself  always.  He  had  to  find  a  successful 
General  in  order  to  win  the  victory,  then  he  had 
to  guard  against  the  backstroke  of  such  a  vic 
tory  with  such  a  General.  Is  Lincoln  mighty 
enough,  after  bringing  the  military  arm  to  its 
highest  efficiency,  to  control  it  and  not  to  be  con 
trolled  by  it?  Such  is  the  severest  personal  test 
to  which  the  crisis  is  subjecting  the  President. 

General  Lee  had  been  made  almost  if  not  quite 
the  military  dictator  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
taking  as  a  pretext  some  reported  words  of  Grant, 
had  proposed  a  military  convention  for  adjusting 
"the  subject  of  controversy  between  the  belliger 
ents."  Thus  the  War  was  to  be  settled  by  the 
two  military  chieftains  at  the  head  of  their 
respective  armies,  instead  of  the  civil  powers. 
Grant  did  not  reject  these  overtures,  but  sent 
them  to  Washington,  seemingly  in  order  to  get 
instructions.  The  telegram  was  handed  to  Lin 
coln  who  at  once  wrote  out  the  following  order 
and  gave  it  to  Stanton  with  the  request  to  send 
it  to  Grant: 


554         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

'The  President  directs  me  to  say  that  he  wishes 
you  to  have  no  conference  with  General  Lee  un 
less  it  be  for  the  capitulation  of  General  Lee's 
army,  or  on  some  minor  or  purely  military  matter. 
He  instructs  me  to  say  that  you  are  not  to 
decide,  discuss,  or  confer  upon  any  political  ques 
tions.  Such  questions  the  President  holds  in  his 
own  hands,  and  will  submit  them  to  no  military 
conferences  or  conventions.  Meanwhile  you  are 
to  press  to  the  utmost  your  military  advantages." 

A  very  decided  authoritative  tone  runs  through 
this  order,  which  Lincoln  must  have  felt  to  be 
imperatively  necessary.  The  subordination  of  the 
military  to  the  political  power  in  the  Gov 
ernment  could  not  be  more  firmly  asserted.  Lin 
coln  did  not  suspect  that  Grant  had  any  inten 
tion  of  usurping  a  function  which  did  not  belong 
to  him.  Still  Lincoln  through  his  own  experience 
had  good  reason  to  be  on  his  guard  against 
the  unconscious  tendency  of  the  military  profes 
sion.  We  would  have  gladly  heard  Grant's  com 
ment  on  the  foregoing  order  in  his  Memoirs,  but 
we  cannot  find  that  it  is  mentioned.  It  is  dated 
March  3rd;  1865,  the  day  before  the  second  inaug 
uration  of  Lincoln,  and  must  be  deemed  a  very 
significant  and  timely  utterance.  And  yet,  in 
spite  of  its  emphatic  words,  Grant  forgot  it  five 
weeks  later,  when  he  wrote  the  terms  of  Lee's  sur 
render  at  Appomattox.  Unconsciously  he  exer 
cised  the  pardoning  power  which  belonged  to  the 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      555 

President,  decreeing  that  "each  officer  and  man 
will  be  allowed  to  return  to  their  homes,  not  to  be 
disturbed  by  United  States  authority  so  long  as 
they  observe  their  parole."  Quite  forgotten  was 
Lincoln's  incisive  prohibition:  "You  will  not  de 
cide,  discuss,  or  confer  upon  any  political  ques 
tions."  Lincoln  would  probably  have  given  as 
good  or  even  better  terms;  but  he  was  the  person 
to  give  them:  "Such  questions  (political)  the 
President  holds  in  his  own  hands."  Grant  in  his 
Memoirs  is  evidently  defending  himself  against 
later  criticism  in  saying:  "When  I  put  my  pen  to 
the  paper,  I  did  not  know  the  first  word  I  should 
use  in  writing  the  terms."  He  never  thought  of 
the  political  aspect  of  his  agreement  with  Lee,  he 
did  not  have  in  mind  his  political  subordination. 
A  still  greater  violation  was  committed  by  Sher 
man  in  his  articles  of  capitulation  for  Johnston's 
army,  so  that  they  had  to  be  revoked,  Grant 
himself  so  declaring.  But  nobody  can  seriously 
think  that  Grant  or  Sherman  ever  intended  any 
disregard  of  the  supreme  civil  authority  over 
them;  their  personal  attitude  toward  Lincoln  was 
one  of  admiration  and  love,  very  different  from 
that  of  McClellan.  The  real  point  of  the  ar 
gument  is  that  their  infraction  of  the  political 
power  was  unconscious,  unpurposed,  a  spontaneous 
outburst  of  their  military  character  and  training; 
but  all  the  more  it  showed  the  native  bent  of  mil 
itarism  to  forget  qivism.  Now  Lincoln  during  his 


556         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

whole  term  was  kept  aware  of  this  tendency 
through  its  repeated  outbreaks  in  leading  army 
officers,  but  he  was  able  to  maintain  and  to  trans 
mit  the  supremacy  of  the  political  government  of 
the  country. 

At  any  rate,  after  having  militarized  the  whole 
Nation  for  years,  we  escaped  the  military  despo 
tism,  and  even  the  military  dictatorship,  which 
European  History  had  so  often  shown  to  be  the 
natural  outcome  of  such  a  prolonged  Civil  War . 
Indeed  hundreds  of  prophecies  were  wafted 
over  to  us  from  Europe,  with  the  one  burden: 
Your  Caesar  is  in  training  and  will  soon  appear. 
But  he  never  came,  though  he  would  probably 
have  come  in  Europe  with  its  system  of  military 
monarchies.  A  new  stage  of  the  World's  History, 
wholly  different  from  the  European,  has  arrived, 
with  a  fresh  historic  message.  The  new  Hero  of 
the  People  is  not  to  be  military  but  civil — Lincoln. 
Very  characteristic  is  the  fact  that  the  chief  heroic 
figure  in  the  greatest  of  wars  could  hardly  be 
called  warlike — was  a  civilian,  not  a  general.  That 
simply  reverses  European  History,  and  indicates 
an  altogether  different  political  order  and  a  dif 
ferent  political  consciousness. 

To  be  sure,  we  did  not  wholly  escape  from  some 
lesser  manifestations  of  militarism  in  arbitrary  ar 
rests,  in  suppressions  of  newspapers,  in  unneces 
sary  interference  with  the  civil  process  by  depart 
ment  commanders  of  the  Northern  States.  The 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      557 

record  shows  that  Lincoln  disliked  this  tendency, 
and  counteracted  it  whenever  possible.  The  Peo 
ple  also  were  averse  to  it,  though  strongly  sup 
porting  the  Government.  Still  the  military  power 
did  enough  to  show  its  native  character,  and  to 
indicate  the  danger  which  it  might  bring  upon  our 
kind  of  political  institution. 

VIII .  Very  necessary  is  it  now  to  bring  to  a 
close  this  account  of  Lincoln.  In  the  present  Period 
he  is  the  center  of  a  vast  swirl  of  events  and  per 
sons,  all  of  them  bearing  some  relation  to  him. 
There  can  be  no  attempt  here  even  to  mention  the 
intricate  movements,  both  political  and  military, 
during  the  War.  Lincoln's  biography  expands 
almost  into  a  biography  of  the  Nation,  whose  Will 
he  becomes  emphatically,  realizing  in  action  its 
deepest  instinct  and  aspiration.  To  be  sure,  he 
still  employs  the  word,  speaking  to  the  People 
with  a  wonderful  effect;  Lincoln's  addresses, 
letters,  messages,  are  the  most  important  docu 
ments  in  the  literature  of  War,  intrinsically  so  and 
not  merely  by  virtue  of  their  official  authority. 
Lincoln  is  still  the  voice  of  the  World-Spirit  to  the 
Folk-Soul;  in  fact  he  is  more,  he  gets  to  be  the 
latter's  schoolmaster,  putting  it  under  training  till 
it  performs  the  supernal  behest.  Like  ancient  Per 
icles,  he  disciplines  his  people  with  his  word  when 
they  are  backward  in  stepping  up  to  their  task. 

Often  enough  have  we  already  declared  that  the 
grand  theme  of  Lincoln  is  the  Federal  Union.  This 


558        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD 

Union  he  will  primarily  preserve :  not  only  will  he 
preserve  it  but  also  emancipate  it  by  freeing  it  of 
its  great  enemy  which  has  always  divided  it;  and 
not  only  will  he  emancipate  it,  but  also  transform 
it  from  the  old  Double  Union  into  the  new  One 
Union,  making  the  latter  institutional.  The  half- 
and-halfness  he  is  to  overcome  completely,  as  well 
negatively  from  the  outside,  as  also  positively 
from  the  inside ;  he  will  undo  secession  by  the  arm 
of  power,  but  the  greater  thing  is,  he  will  make  it 
undo  itself.  The  seceded  States  have  first  to  be 
unionized,  then  they  are  to  unionize  themselves. 
Three  distinct  stages  of  a  great  process  we  can  see 
in  this  matter:  Preservation,  Emancipation,  and 
Reconstruction  of  the  Union.  This  may  well  be 
deemed  the  germinal  process  of  Lincoln's  achieve 
ment  during  the  War. 

1.  Preservation  of  the  Union.  The  first  act  of 
Lincoln  as  the  Nation's  Executive  is  to  preserve 
the  Union.  He  is  to  rouse  and  to  fortify  the  con 
sciousness  of  the  Union  in  its  supremacy  over  the 
single  State.  That  is  his  first  and  immediate  task, 
whereby  he  consolidates  all  true  Unionists,  North 
ern  and  Southern.  He  keeps  the  upper  tier  of 
Slave- States,  and  arms  them  in  the  cause.  We 
may  well  deem  this  the  primal  great  political 
act  of  Lincoln :  he  divides  the  South  and  unites 
the  North. 

The  doing  of  this  work  and  the  solidifying  of  it 
so  that  it  could  not  be  undone,  occupied  him  chiefly 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      559 

for  a  year  to  a  year  and  a  half  (1861-2).  The 
Union  which  he  sought  to  preserve,  was  the  old 
Double  Union,  which  he  had  sworn  to  maintain,  if 
he  could,  with  slavery.  But  maintain  it  he  must, 
if  the  necessity  comes,  without  slavery.  First, 
however,  he  has  to  train  the  Folk-Soul,  and  per 
chance  be  trained  himself,  to  the  absolute  primacy 
of  the  Union,  and  with  it  the  consequent  right  of 
Coercion. 

It  is  generally  agreed  that  this  first  policy  of 
Lincoln  won  the  Border  Slave  States  and  a  large 
portion  of  the  Democrats  of  the  North.  If  these 
two  elements  had  been  alienated  at  the  start,  the 
War  could  hardly  have  succeeded.  Lincoln  was  a 
son  of  Kentucky,  and  he  kept  it  from  following 
Virginia,  to  which  it  was  closely  allied  in  blood, 
in  history  and  in  institutions.  At  the  same  time 
Lincoln  never  retracted  his  principle  that  there 
should  be  no  more  Slave  States  made  out  of  the 
territories.  And  he  doubtless  still  believed  his 
more  sweeping  proposition  that  the  Union  cannot 
endure  half  slave  and  half  free,  though  at  present 
his  position  and  his  oath  required  him  to  say:  "if 
I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave, 
I  would  do  it."  The  anti-slavery  people,  partic 
ularly  those  of  New  England,  needed  a  lesson  in 
unionism,  which  he  gave  them  in  his  letter  to 
Greeley.  On  the  other  hand  the  pro-slavery 
unionists  of  the  Border  States  must  also  be 
brought  to  assert  the  unconditional  Primacy  of 


560        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

the  Union,  which  is  heard  in  Lincoln's  declara 
tion:  "if  I  could  save  the  Union  by  freeing  all  oi 
the  slaves,  I  would  do  it."  Thus  he  puts  his  anti- 
slavery  and  his  pro-slavery  supporters  under 
training,  which  finally  unites  both  sides,  otherwise 
so  antagonistic,  in  a  common  purpose:  Union  is 
first,  the  supreme  end  to  be  attained;  slavery  is 
the  means,  it  will  be  preserved  or  destroyed  ac 
cording  to  necessity.  To  be  sure,  each  side  did 
not  fail  to  talk  angrily,  to  protest  and  sometimes 
to  threaten;  still  they  stayed  and  fought  together 
with  Lincoln. 

If  the  moral  aspect  were  to  be  exclusively  taken, 
anti-slavery  and  pro-slavery  could  never  have 
agreed;  each  thought  itself  right  morally,  and  the 
other  wrong,  and  perchance  fanatical.  Moreover 
each  side  in  its  excess  had  a  tendency  to  turn  dis- 
unionists;  the  Northern  Garrisonians  were  openly 
hostile  to  the  Union,  and  regarded  the  Constitu 
tion  as  "an  agreement  with  Hell  and  a  covenant 
with  death."  Lincoln,  though  undoubtedly  anti- 
slavery,  suppressed  this  moral  dualism  and  clung 
to  the  Union,  thus  saving  it  and  bringing  all  its 
supporters  for  its  sake  to  destroy  slavery.  Such 
an  education,  however,  requires  time;  but  finally 
the  hour  strikes  and  practically  all  unionists, 
Northern  and  Southern,  are  brought  to  take  the 
next  great  step  with  the  President. 

2.  Emancipation  of  the  Union.    And  now  Lin 
coln  has  reached  the  point  of  smiting  slavery  as 


LINCOLN  THE. NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      561 

the  source  or  cause  of  division  in  the  Union  since 
its  formation.  He  starts  to  unionizing  the  entire 
country  by  destroying  the  original  root  of  disun 
ion.  He  makes  himself  Free- State  producing,  the 
Nation's  Executive  vindicates  the  Nation  as  a 
whole.  "I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons 
held  as  slaves  within  said  designated  States  and 
parts  of  States  [now  in  rebellion]  are  and  hence 
forth  shall  be  free."  Will  we  hear  in  this  sentence, 
the  voice  of  the  People  in  its  one  representative 
Self.  "The  Executive  Government  of  the  United 
States,  including  the  military  and  naval  authori 
ties  thereof  will  recognize  and  maintain  the  free 
dom  of  said  persons."  From  one  point  of  view 
Emancipation  is  a  negative  act,  it  destroys  an  al 
ready  existent  institutional  order  based  on  slavery. 
But  in  the  deeper  aspect  it  destroys  what  had 
shown  itself  destructive  of  the  Union,  which  is 
the  supreme  National  object,  as  well  as  the  new 
purpose  of  the  World's  History.  Emancipation, 
then,  is  really  a  negation  of  a  negative,  and  at 
bottom  is  the  destroyer  of  destruction. 

President  Lincoln  declares  that  he  issues  the 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation  "by  virtue  of  the 
power  in  me  vested  as  commander-in-chief  of  the 
army  and  navy  of  the  United  States,"  and  that  he 
regards  it  "as  a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure" 
for  the  suppression  of  rebellion.  He  does  not  base 
his  edict  of  freedom  upon  moral  grounds,  as  the 
wrongfulness  of  slavery;  he  claims  it  to  be  ulti- 


562        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

mately  a  Constitutional  act,  done  for  the  purpose 
of  saving  the  Constitution. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Lincoln  had  given  to  the 
subject  a  great  deal  of  thought  and  had  gradually 
evolved  into  the  method  and  the  moment.  He 
must  keep  his  ground  of  action  institutional, 
otherwise  he  would  divide  his  supporters,  many  of 
whom  would  not  take  part  in  a  moral  crusade 
against  slavery.  And  there  was  a  still  deeper 
reason :  as  the  grand  purpose  and  end  of  the  War 
the  idea  of  the  Union  must  remain  all-dominating 
with  its  world-historical  mission.  Emancipation 
is  not  to  supplant  the  Union  as  the  supreme  object 
of  the  contest,  it  must  be  strictly  kept  in  its  place 
as  means.  This  is  a  point  which  still  should  be 
emphasized,  if  we  may  judge  by  recent  histories 
and  biographies.  Emancipation  is  not  to  be  dis 
located  from  where  Lincoln  put  it,  being  the  sec 
ond  grand  act  in  bringing  forth  the  new  Union. 
The  first  act,  as  simply  preservative  of  the  old 
Double  Union,  had  shown  itself  inadequate  to 
meet  secession,  which  must  next  be  deprived  of  its 
enforced  help  through  slaves.  These  are  not  only 
to  be  freed,  but  when  of  suitable  condition  "will 
be  received  into  the  armed  service  of  the  United 
States  to  garrison  forts,  positions,  stations  and 
other  places,  and  to  man  vessels  of  all  sorts  in 
said  service."  The  slave  is  suddenly  transformed 
into  a  freeman  and  a  soldier  fighting  for  the  liberty 
of  his  race.  Later  something  of  the  kind  was 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      563 

proposed  on  the  part  of  the  Confederates,  who 
were  at  first  very  bitter  in  their  censure  of  the 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation. 

The  date  of  the  instrument  is  January  1st,  1863, 
notice  having  been  given  a  hundred  days  before. 
Emancipation  is  primarily  a  negative  act,  we  re 
peat;  the  fetters  were  struck  from  the  slave  by  an 
external  blow,  but  that  did  not  make  him  intern 
ally  free.  Its  function  was  to  smite  the  separator 
of  the  Union,  which  was  to  be  no  longer  slave  and 
free,  no  longer  double.  It  was  a  military  measure 
to  preserve  the  United-States  united.  Lincoln 
was  careful  to  put  it  into  its  true  place  as  a  nega 
tive  violent  act  of  war  rendered  necessary  by  the 
emergency. 

But  now  comes  the  more  difficult  problem.  The 
States  in  rebellion  are  struck  down  by  war  and  by 
emancipation;  breathing  still  they  lie  not  quite 
dead,  though  not  active  and  indeed  not  capable 
of  action  in  their  present  paralysis.  How  can  they 
be  brought  to  perform  their  function  again  under 
the  new  conditions?  For  if  the  Federal  Union  is 
to  be  truly  restored,  they  must  be  restored  to 
their  normal  life  and  political  activity.  In  this 
sphere  lies  Lincoln's  third  great  effort  during  the 
War. 

3.  Reconstruction  of  the  Union.  Under  the  date 
of  December  8th,  1863,  we  possess  two  documents 
of  Lincoln  which  outline  his  plan  of  restoring  the 
seceded  States  to  their  proper  place  in  the  Union. 


564         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

(See  Lincoln's  Works,  Vol.  II. ,  p.  442  and  p.  445). 
The  problem  is,  How  can  these  States,  undone 
first  by  their  own  deed  of  secession  and  then  by 
the  desolation  of  war,  be  made  over  again  into 
living  members  of  the  national  organism?  Lin 
coln's  way  was,  in  general,  that  the  loyal  citizens 
should  make  the  start,  should  hold  a  convention 
which  would  repeal  the  act  of  secession,  form  a 
new  constitution,  and  abolish  slavery.  Above  all, 
let  the  question  be  passed  over  "whether  the 
seceded  States,  so-called,  are  in  the  Union  or  out 
of  it,"  which  he  brands  as  "a  merely  pernicious 
abstraction,"  practically  good  for  nothing,  yet 
with  the  power  of  stirring  up  boundless  strife 
among  friends. 

Lincoln  held  that  a  seceded  State  might  be  re 
constructed  when  one-tenth  of  its  voters  in  1860 
should  take  the  requisite  oath,  whose  form  is  care 
fully  written  out  by  him  in  the  Proclamation  of 
December  8th,  1863,  which  bears  the  title,  "Pro 
clamation  of  Amnesty  and  Reconstruction."  Lin 
coln  held  that  no  State  could  legally  secede,  and 
thus  break  up  the  Union.  If  that  were  so,  "I  am 
not  President,  these  gentlemen  are  not  Congress." 
On  the  other  hand  no  State  could  constitutionally 
be  deprived  of  Statehood.  Congress  could  not 
abolish  slavery  in  a  State,  such  had  been  the  oft- 
repeated  doctrine  of  the  Republican  party.  Nor 
could  the  President  abolish  slavery  except  as  a 
war  measure,  which,  when  peace  came,  might  be 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      565 

set  aside  by  the  Courts.  A  State  could  abolish 
slavery  within  its  limits,  but  could  also  revoke 
any  such  enactment.  Lincoln  saw  that  the  only 
way  by  which  freedom  could  be  made  secure  was 
through  a  Constitutional  Amendment.  Hence  he 
was  so  urgent  for  its  adoption.  He  lived  to  see  it 
passed  by  both  Houses  of  Congress  and  sent  to  the 
States,  whose  ratification  of  it  he  did  not  behold. 
Still,  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  is  the  work  of 
Lincoln  and  the  crown  of  his  Constitutional  labors. 
Here  it  is :  "Neither  Slavery  nor  involuntary  ser 
vitude,  except  as  a  punishment  of  crime,  whereof 
the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall 
exist  within  the  United  States,  or  any  place  sub 
ject  to  their  jurisdiction." 

The  wording  of  this  Amendment  is  essentially 
that  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  for  which  Lincoln 
voted  so  often  during  his  Congressional  career. 
But  the  Wilmot  Proviso  applied  only  to  the  terri 
tories  to  be  made  into  new  States,  whereas  this 
Amendment  applies  to  the  already  existent  Slave- 
States,  new  and  old.  Thus  that  Proviso  is  com 
pletely  nationalized,  we  may  say,  universalized. 
But  the  words  reach  back  much  further,  namely, 
to  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  which  declared  in  the 
Sixth  Section:  "There  shall  be  neither  Slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude  in  said  Territory  [North- 
Western],  otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of 
crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly 
convicted."  The  Ordinance  of  the  Continental 


566         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

Congress  has  started  the  production  of  the  West- 
Northern  Group  of  Free-States,  which,  accord 
ingly,  began  before  the  formation  of  the  Consti 
tution  and  of  the  Union.  What  part,  both 
political  and  military,  this  Group  took  in  the  Civil 
War,  has  been  already  briefly  indicated.  Signifi 
cant  is  the  fact  that  the  very  words  which  are 
used  to  make  it  free,  are  again  used  to  make  the 
whole  Union  free.  It  may  be  added  that  these 
words  have  been  traced  back  to  a  report  made 
by  Thomas  Jefferson  to  the  Continental  Congress 
in  1784,  which  report,  however,  was  not  then 
adopted.  Thus  early  we  note  the  tendency  of  the 
American  People  to  be  Free-State  producing 
through  their  government. 

The  Thirteenth  Amendment  has,  therefore,  be 
hind  it  a  considerable  evolution.  Still  we  may 
deem  it  Lincoln's  own  deed,  and  it  is  the  culmina 
tion  of  his  Reconstruction  of  the  Union.  It  is  the 
finished  side  of  which  Emancipation  is  the  start. 
It  completes  the  three  great  acts  in  the  drama  of 
Lincoln  as  the  Nation's  Executive — Preservation, 
Emancipation,  Reconstruction.  Moreover,  it  strik 
ingly  fulfils  Lincoln's  prophecy:  This  Nation  can 
not  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free. 
Still  further,  it  rounds  out  with  a  capstone  the 
whole  life  of  Lincoln  as  the  mediator  of  the  World- 
Spirit  at  a  given  stage  of  the  World's  History 
with  the  American  Folk-Soul,  which  has  realized 
more  adequately  through  him,  its  representative, 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      567 

the  Federated  Union  of  States  as  distinct  from 
the  European  and  Oriental  forms  of  Government. 

It  should  be  added  that  Lincoln's  Reconstruc 
tion  of  the  Union  met  with  much  opposition.  But 
he  clung  to  it  till  his  death.  He  knew  that  each 
seceded  State  must  ultimately  reconstruct  itself, 
and  his  object  was  to  give  it  a  chance  as  soon  as 
possible.  The  obstacles  were  mainly  three:  (1) 
the  hostility  and  indifference  of  the  States  them 
selves,  though  Lincoln  kept  urging  them  to  act 
quickly  before  external  interference  might  delay  or 
thwart  their  new  Statehood;  (2)  the  military  men 
of  the  Union  Army,  believing  in  military  govern 
ment  in  accord  with  their  character,  would  govern 
them  by  force  like  conquered  European  provinces 
(read  his  strong  admonitions  to  Generals  Hurlbut 
and  Canby  about  the  Louisiana  State  Government, 
November  and  December,  1854).  But  the  chief 
obstacle  (3)  was  the  attitude  of  Congress,  which 
claimed  the  right  of  Reconstruction.  Lincoln, 
however,  stood  his  ground  and  was  stronger  with 
the  People  than  Congress,  which  knew  the  fact 
well.  But  after  the  death  of  Lincoln  the  new 
President,  Andrew  Johnson,  brought  to  the  surface 
all  the  latent  conflicts  of  the  time,  and  there  fol 
lowed  the  shameful  period  of  Reconstruction  so- 
called,  which  would  probably  have  never  been,  had 
Lincoln  lived.  Still  his  main  work  of  restoration 
was  practically  saved  at  last,  after  many  years. 

IX.  The    regeneration    of    the    whole    Union 


568         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

through  the  Civil  War  Lincoln  began  to  impress 
upon  the  People,  especially  after  proclaiming 
Emancipation.  In  his  Gettysburg  address  we  may 
hear  him  talking  to  the  Folk-Soul,  and  exhorting 
it  "that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead 
shall  not  have  died  in  vain,  that  this  Nation, 
under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom." 
This  hints  that  the  old  dual  Nation  must  be 
transformed  and  regenerated.  Then  follow  the 
words  which  have  become  the  Nation's  own 
confession  of  faith:  "that  Government  of  the 
People,  by  the  People,  and  for  the  People,  shall 
not  perish  from  the  earth."  Thus  the  Folk-Soul 
is  reminded  and  becomes  conscious  through  such 
reminder,  which  is  that  it  is  fighting  for  a  cause 
not  limited  to  the  territory  of  the  United  States, 
but  belongs  to  the  whole  earth — a  cause  not  only 
national  but  world-historical. 

The  careful  reader  will  note  that  in  the  fore 
going  expression  three  things  are  stated,  and  that 
there  is  indicated  a  triple  process  of  thought: 
(1)  the  People  are  to  be  governed,  are  to  have  a 
Government  over  them;  (2)  they  are  to  govern 
themselves  through  such  Government  organized 
by  themselves;  (3)  the  end  of  such  Government 
is  the  good  of  People  themselves  as  a  whole.  This 
gives,  of  course  very  briefly,  the  psychical  round  of 
American  political  consciousness,  upon  which  alone 
the  American  Government  can  be  based,  and  of 
which  it  is  the  supreme  institutional  manifestation. 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE       569 

Lincoln  was  the  man  who  made  universally 
current  the  expression  "Government  of  the  Peo 
ple,  by  the  People,  for  the  People,"  so  that  the 
People  themselves  have  appropriated  it  as  a  defi 
nition  of  their  own  political  institution.  But  it 
was  uttered  long  before  Lincoln  spoke  it  at  Gettys 
burg;  in  fact  he  seems  almost  to  cite  it  as  something 
well  known.  And  it  certainly  was  well  known  to 
lawyers.  For  it  is  contained  in  a  very  famous 
decision  by  the  greatest  of  American  Jurists, 
Chief  Justice  Marshall,  who  uses  (in  McCulloch  vs. 
Maryland)  the  following  statement:  "It  is  the 
Government  of  all;  its  powers  are  delegated  by 
all;  it  represents  all  and  acts  for  all.1'  This  has 
the  thought,  though  it  is  not  so  complete  or  so 
concise  as  the  expression  of  Lincoln;  still  it  has  its 
advantage  of  affirming  the  allness  or  universality  of 
the  Government,  and  of  emphasizing  the  fact  that 
ours  is  a  mediated  or  representative  Government, 
not  a  pure  Democracy  like  ancient  Athens.  This 
peculiar  stress  is  highly  characteristic  of  Marshall. 
In  the  same  decision  the  Chief  Justice  gives  the 
same  thought  a  somewhat  different  turn:  It  is  "a 
Government  of  the  People;  its  powers  are  granted 
by  them,  and  are  to  be  exercised  on  them  and  for 
their  benefit. "  Lincoln,  not  only  as  a  lawyer  but 
as  a  student  of  national  politics,  had  in  all  prob 
ability  read  this  decision  which  is  deemed  one  of 
Marshall's  greatest. 

Many    years    afterward,  Daniel  Webster,  who 


570         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

was  an  attorney  in  the  preceding  case  of  McCul- 
loch  vs.  Maryland,  employed  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  a  similar  locution:  "It  is,  Sir,  the 
People's  Government  made  for  the  People,  made 
by  the  People  and  answerable  to  the  People." 
This  occurs  in  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne,  a  speech 
which  Lincoln  must  have  almost  known  by  heart. 
Herndon  reports  of  Lincoln,  while  writing  the 
first  Inaugural:  "He  called  for  Webster's  reply  to 
Hayne,  a  speech  which  he  read  when  he  lived  at 
New  Salem,  and  which  he  always  regarded  as  the 
grandest  specimen  of  American  oratory."  Possibly 
he  found  this  speech  originally  in  one  of  the  newspa 
pers  of  his  Post-office  Hat.  At  any  rate  the  expres 
sion  under  consideration  must  have  become  known 
to  Lincoln  through  Webster,  whose  fame  scattered 
it  far  and  wide,  making  it  familiar  to  all  who 
favored  the  supremacy  of  the  Union  against  Nul 
lification  and  the  doctrine  of  State  Sovereignty. 
In  this  earlier  contest  for  the  Union,  Lincoln 
deeply  shared  (see  preceding  pp.  152-6). 

From  Webster  the  expression  was  disseminated 
in  New  England,  where  it  became  seemingly  a 
favorite  with  Theodore  Parker.  Herndon  relates 
(see  Herndon  and  Weik's  Lincoln,  II,  p.  65)  that 
on  his  return  from  the  East,  "I  brought  with  me 
additional  sermons  and  lectures  by  Theodore 
Parker.  One  of  these  lectures  was  on  The  Effect 
of  Slavery  on  the  American  People,  which  I  gave 
to  Lincoln  who  read  and  returned  it.  He  liked 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      571 

especially  the  following  expression  which  he 
marked  with  a  pencil,  and  which  he  in  sub 
stance  afterwards  used  in  his  Gettysburg  address: 
'Democracy  is  direct  self-go vernment,  over  all 
the  People,  for  all  the  People,  by  all  the  People.'" 
Here  we  have  to  say  that  Lincoln  did  not  hold 
that  our  Democracy  was  direct  or  immediate  self- 
government;  he  leaves  that  out  of  his  Gettys 
burg  address  and  all  others.  Ours  is  a  mediated, 
representative  self-government — a  fact  which  Mar 
shall's  statement  brings  out  strongly,  as  already 
noted.  In  spite  of  Herndon,  we  have  to  think 
that  the  expression  had  long  been  known  to  Lin 
coln,  and  to  many  other  people. 

Still  Lincoln  has  made  the  expression  an  integral 
part  of  the  American  consciousness,  which  uses 
it  as  a  kind  of  formula  for  defining  itself  polit 
ically,  and  thus  becoming  aware  of  itself  as  com 
pletely  self-governing.  Every  school  boy  cons  it 
and  commits  it  to  memory.  Great  principles  are 
usually  uttered  long  before  they  become  popular, 
and  by  a  different  man  from  the  one  who  makes 
them  popular.  Often  the  solitary  thinker,  sage, 
poet,  prophet,  jurist  throws  out  the  maxim  which 
in  time  is  to  become  epoch-making,  being  taken 
up  into  the  Folk-Soul  and  thereby  truly  realized. 
At  Gettysburg  Lincoln  seized  the  occasion  or  the 
right  psychologic  moment  to  transform  an  old 
floating  expression  into  an  eternal  utterance  of 
the  People  for  knowing  itself.  For  the  Folk-Soul 


572         ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

also  must  become  self-conscious  in  regard  to  its 
own  deepest  character  and  destiny.  We  have  al 
ready  often  noted  Lincoln  as  its  voice  speaking  to 
it  the  behest  of  the  World-Spirit  at  the  given 
time.  The  other  famous  statement  of  Lincoln 
that  the  nation  cannot  endure  half  slave  and 
half  free,  had  often  been  said  in  substance  before 
him.  But  no  speaker  ever  brought  it  home  to  the 
People  and  caused  them  to  make  it  a  reality  ex 
cept  Lincoln.  Undoubtedly  the  time  had  to  be 
ready  and  the  opportunity  to  be  given ;  Civiliza 
tion,  Progress,  Providence,  the  World-Spirit,  hav 
ing  reached  a  stage  in  the  movement  toward  its 
goal,  bids  the  epoch-making  mandate  which  the 
Great  Man  hears  and  voices  to  his  People  who  are 
to  realize  it  in  the  world. 

X.  Lincoln  was  assassinated  on  the  14th  of 
April,  1865.  The  rebellion  had  been  put  down; 
the  work  of  reconstructing  the  Union  Lincoln  had 
already  begun,  and  had  carried  so  far  that  it  could 
not  be  again  undone,  though  it  might  be  and  was 
retarded,  and  indeed  for  a  time  perverted.  That 
prophecy  with  which  the  Lincolniad  proper  starts 
— "this  Nation  cannot  endure  permanently  half 
slave  and  half  free" — has  been  fulfilled,  chiefly 
through  Lincoln  himself.  And  his  entire  biog 
raphy,  when  viewed  in  its  total  process,  gives  a 
sense  of  completeness,  even  if  the  thread  of  life 
was  shorn  off  by  a  sudden  act  of  violence.  He 
died,  after  having  made  himself  harmonious  with 


LINCOLN  THE  NATION'S  EXECUTIVE.      573 

the  Folk-Soul  and  it  harmonious  with  himself, 
yea,  after  having  made  the  disunited  and  warring 
Folk-Soul  harmonious  with  itself  by  casting  out 
its  deepest  dualism,  into  which,  indeed,  it  was 
born.  Thus  we  may  say  that  through  Lincoln  as 
leader  the  Union  and  also  the  Constitution  were 
able  to  get  rid  of  their  hereditary  curse .  Great  is 
it  for  the  individual  to  free  himself  of  his  ancestral 
taint,  but  greater  is  it  for  the  nation  through  its 
Great  Man  to  perform  such  an  act  of  self-purification. 
Looking  back  at  the  biographical  career  of  Lin 
coln  in  its  total  sweep,  we  observe  that  his  First 
Period  was  his  intimate  life  and  acquaintance 
with  the  People,  his  Apprenticeship  to  the  Folk- 
Soul,  as  we  have  named  it;  but  in  the  Second 
Period  occurred  his  great  alienation  within  and 
without,  which  he  had  to  overcome  theoretically 
in  himself,  in  his  People,  and  especially  in  his 
antitype  Douglas,  as  the  representative  of  the 
Double  Nation — all  of  which  brings  him  face  to 
face  with  the  deepest  separation  of  his  time  and 
Nation,  namely,  Disunion.  This  is  what  he  prac 
tically  eliminates  in  his  Third  Period,  reproducing 
in  the  Nation  his  own  inner  harmony,  and  return 
ing  to  the  primial  unity  of  himself  with  the  Folk- 
Soul,  which  unity  is  not  now  immediate,  but 
mediated  and  restored  after  long  and  deep 
estrangement.  So  we  contemplate  Lincoln's  life 
rounding  itself  out  to  its  psychical  completeness 
and  fulfilment. 


574        ABRAHAM  LINCOLN— PART  THIRD. 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  from  this  point  of 
view  Lincoln's  life  is  an  important  illustration  of 
Universal  Biography.  In  its  way  we  may  deem  it 
a  typical  career  for  the  human  being  who  thinks 
and  does  great  things,  who  is  able  to  clothe  his 
thought  and  action  in  the  mighty  events  of  his 
time.  Lincoln's  Biography  reveals  the  inner 
psychical  movement  of  all  Biography;  his  life 
manifests  the  essential  process  of  every  completed 
life.  This  is  the  process  which  the  biographer 
must  bring  out  in  his  writ,  and  thus  at  least  help 
create  the  beginning  of  a  cosmos  in  our  present 
biographical  chaos.  A  science  of  Biography  must 
be  possible  as  well  as  a  science  of  History.  In 
deed,  History  and  Biography,  though  different  and 
even  opposite,  are  symmetrical  counterparts,  and 
at  last  belong  together.  History  puts  stress  upon 
the  Nation  and  its  evolution  in  events;  Biography 
puts  stress  upon  the  Man,  and,  as  political,  shows 
him  mediating  the  World-Spirit  with  the  Nation 
of  his  time. 

So  we  conclude  our  little  book,  which,  as  we 
conceive  it,  is  not  so  much  a  literal  Biography  as 
an  exemplar  and  an  interpretation  in  Universal 
Biography. 


THE  LINCOLN  TETRALOGY 

BY 

DENTON  J.  SNIDER. 

A  national  epos  in  four  separate  poems  cor 
responding  to  the  chief  epochs  of  Lincoln's 
career,  and  setting  forth  especially  his  inner  life 
and  its  transformations  along  with  the  outer 
events  of  his  time. 

I.  LINCOLN  IN  THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR. 
The  first  pivotal  episode  in  Lin 
coln's  evolution,  written  in  free 
rhymed  tetrameters $1.50 

II.  LINCOLN  AND  ANN  RUTLEDGE.  The 
love  idyl  of  Lincoln's  life,  written 
in  hexameters 1.50 

III.  LINCOLN  IN  THE  WHITE  HOUSE.    Lin 

coln's  development  through  inner 
and  outer  conflict  to  his  national 
greatness — blank  verse  and  prose  1.50 

IV.  LINCOLN  AT  RICHMOND,  portraying  his 

last  days  of  triumph  and  tragedy 

1.50 


BOOKS   BY  DENTON  J.  SNIDER 

PUBLISHED    BY 

SIGMA    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 
210  Pine  Street,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

I.     Commentary  on  the  Literary  Bibles,  in  9  vols. 

1.  Shakespeare's  Dramas,  3  vols. 

Tragedies    (new   edition) $1.50 

Comedies   (new  edition) 1.50 

Histories    (new  edition) 150 

2.  Goethe's  Faust. 

First  Part    (new   edition) 1.50 

Second  Part   (new  edition) 1.50 

3.  Homer's  Iliad   (new  edition) 1.50 

Homer's   Odyssey 1.50 

4.  Dante's    Inferno 1.50 

Dante's    Purgatory    and   Paradise 1.50 

II.     Psychology,  System  of,  in  16  vols. 

1.  Organic  Psychology. 

1.  Intellect ,  1  50 

2.  Will 1.50 

3.  Feeling  .  * 1.50 

2.  Psychology  of  Philosophy. 

1.  Ancient   European    Philosophy 1.50 

2.  Modern  European  Philosophy 1.50 

3.  Psychology  of  Nature. 

1.  Cosmos  and  Diacosmos 1.50 

2.  Biocosmos.  ,. 1.50 

4.  Psychology  of  Art. 

1.  Architecture.  .  t  ,  1.50 

2.  Music  and  Fine  Arts 1.50 

5.  Psychology  of  Institutions. 

1.  Social  Institutions 1.50 

2.  The  State 1.50 

6.  Psychology  of  History. 

1.  European   History 1.50 

2.  The  Father  of  History 1.50 

3.  The  American  Ten  Years'  War 1.50 

7.  Psychology  of  Biography. 

1.  Abraham  Linciln 1.50 

2.  Frederick  Froebel 1.25 

III.  Poems — in  5   vols. 

1.  Homer   in   Chios 1.00 

2.  Delphic  Days   1.00 

3.  Agamemnon's   Daughter 1.00 

4.  Prorsus  Retrorsus 1.00 

5.  Johnny  Appleseed's   Rhymes 1.25 

IV.  The  Lincoln  Tetralogy — An  Epos. 

1.  Lincoln  in  the  Black  Hawk  War 1.50 

2.  Lincoln   and  Ann  Rutledge 1.50 

3.  Lincoln  in  the  White  House 1.50 

4.  Lincoln  at  Richmond 1.50 

V.     Kindergarten. 

1.  Commentary  on  Froebel's  Mother  Play-Songs....  125 

2.  The  Psychology  of  Froebel's  Play-Gifts 1.25 

3.  The  Life  of  Frederick  Froebel 1.25 

VI.     Miscellaneous. 

1.  A  Walk   in  Hellas 1.25 

2.  The  Freeburgers   (a  novel) 1.25 

3.  World's    Fair    Studies 1.25 

4.  A  Tour  in  Europe 1.50 

5.  A  Writer  of  Books  in  His  Genesis 1.50 

For  sale  by  A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO.,  Chicago,  III. 


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